


A Far Cry

by AbelianGrape



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eren Yeager Has Heterochromia Iridum, I'm Bad At Tagging, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin) Has PTSD, Levi has a bit of a hard time tbh, Light Angst, M/M, Mafia Boss Levi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, ex-military Levi, mafia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-05-08 09:01:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14690808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbelianGrape/pseuds/AbelianGrape
Summary: Levi returned from the military a year ago, and has had a few issues getting back into a normal life. However when he is made the new boss of a powerful company that has always been run by his family, he must also take on the lead position of the more sinister part of the family business. His new found power and responsibilities begin to take their toll, and while his powerful allies and company help brush his increasingly erratic behavior under the rug, the strange boy who serves him coffee every morning is becoming more and more curious.





	1. Chapter 1

He snapped awake, panting heavily. His brow was dripping with sweat, and the silk sheets he lay in were tangled around his legs in a damp mess. Sitting up he took deep calming breaths, before extracting himself from the sheets and making his way into the en-suite. Looking at his reflection in the mirror he sighed, placing his hands on the marble counter on either side of the sink and hanging his head. Averting his eyes from his reflection. The man in the mirror had changed so much in so little time. His already stone cold grey eyes had hardened, and black rings formed under them from the sleepless nights that were a constant in his life now. He knew he’d always had pale skin but it was starting to look almost translucent now, making him feel even more like a walking ghost than he already did. Sighing again he ran a hand through his hair, pulling the strands out of his face. It was getting too long again. Reaching out to the cabinet near him, he pulled out the razor and scissors, and with a practiced hand, he fixed his undercut and trimmed the longer hair on top back into the unique style he’d worn almost all his life. Today was his first day back with the company, and even if he didn’t give a damn about his first impression, it wouldn’t do any good for the new owner to look an utter mess. Placing the items back in their place, he glanced back at his reflection. He could still see the remnants of sleep showing on his face, which he quickly cleared with a splash of ice cold water. Flicking his eyes towards the clock he took note of the time - he still had plenty of leeway before it would be time to head to his job.

Leaving the bathroom, he began his old routine. Some things stuck like that. Every morning the same workout routine, a mix of military issue and personal preferences, always ensuring that he stayed at peak fitness levels. The military had been perfect for him in that respect, he’d loved the order and uniformity of every day, there were never random and unexpected changes to his routine like in the normal world, and even if there were they were so occasional the thought of such an occurrence never really crossed his mind. But then of course, everything had changed. He’d left soon afterwards. And now here he was, back into the real world as if nothing had ever happened, as if he hadn’t seen everything he had. His train of thought was cut off by his phone ringing. Picking it up from where he’d left it the night before, he looked down at the time. Perfect. He had just half an hour left before he needed to leave. He scoffed aloud when he finally took note of the caller id, swiftly hanging up, that was not a conversation he wanted at this time in the morning, or ever perhaps. Throwing his phone down on the table as he passed, he returned to the bathroom, taking a quick shower to get rid of the sweat left from his workout. Once out, he grabbed his best suit, styled his hair somewhat. And then snatching up his phone, briefcase and keys he left the apartment with quick strides.

As he made his way down in the elevator, a small ping from his phone informed him that he had received a text. Checking it to find out that his chauffeur had arrived and was waiting outside the front doors. Perfect timing, so far everything was running smoothly. When the doors slid open, he strode out, crossing the large lobby in a matter of seconds, the doorman pulling open the door in order for him to glide through and out towards the waiting car.

After about half an hour of driving slowly through the city due to the heavy morning traffic, he called forward to the driver, asking him to pull over in front of the next coffee shop. “Of course, sir” came the response, and a couple of minutes later the elegant black car pulled over. Stepping through the door into the café, he mentally thanked his driver for somehow picking a shop with almost no queue, despite it being peak time for commuters grabbing their morning coffee fix. Swiftly making his way to the counter he placed his order. It took almost no time at all for his drink to be finished; even the most amateur barista could cope with a straight black coffee. He was back in the car as swiftly as he had left it. It wasn’t much longer before the car was making its way through streets crowded with skyscrapers, all of them sparkling in the morning light. Soon the car stopped for a second time, instead of a small coffee shop it was in front of a glittering structure that despite its surroundings still managed to tower over the others. Striding towards the doors, he didn’t even bother to spare a glance for the insignia above him, the overlapping wings, one dark and one white. He scoffed lightly under his breath ‘The Wings of Freedom’ and yet they seemed to stand for all the hurt and hatred he had endured, at all of his lowest moments that cursed emblem was seared into his memories.

The door was swung open smoothly by a doorman as he approached, and he entered the foyer which was bustling with life, as people rushed around doing their jobs, but as he strode across the marble floor towards the elevators he noticed that people were swiftly moving out of his way and a silence was spreading across the foyer. He became acutely aware of the sharp noise his shoes made against the floor as he walked and he managed to supress a shudder in the smothering silence. Once he reached the elevator and the doors began to close, the noise level returned to the foyer. He knew it was just because it was his first day at the job, of course everyone would want to get a good look at the new head of the company, he was an unknown factor here, nobody even knew he was in any way, shape or form related to the company – that was, until the will of the previous head was read and it was discovered that he not only existed but was the next in line to run the company. Of course they were curious, they had every right to be curious, no one had ever seen this man before, had they? And yet some of them would recognise him, and they would shrink back, try to hide, and if anyone asked if they knew him, they would hurriedly shake their heads and deny all knowledge of the man before them. The monster before them.

And so he brushed off the stares, and the silence as that of idle curiosity, as the elevator brought him closer and closer to the top floor. And yet somewhere in the back of his mind was a niggling insistence, _they knew him, they knew his faults and his transgressions, they weren’t staring in curiosity, they were glaring in hatred. Seeing his sins and damning his existence for them._ He brushed the thoughts away, shaking his head like a dog as if he could physically get rid of the thoughts. He had closed the book on his past now, and those who did recognise him in this building had only read a mere page of that book. He glanced at the panel to see he was only a couple of floors from his destination, so he turned to the mirrored wall and smoothed out his hair before turning back to the doors as they slid open. On the other side of the doors was a young woman waiting for him, as he stepped out she greeted him with a small yet cheerful smile.

“Good morning Mr Ackerman, sir. I’m your personal assistant, Nanaba sir,” he merely nodded in reply, making his way towards his new office with Nanaba walking beside him but a step behind. Her positioning set him on edge slightly, as he found he was unable to see her entirely without moving his head. He made a mental note to find a way to sort that out. He didn’t have to be bothered by it for long however as they then reached his office. It was walled with glass panels, and once one passed through the glass double doors there was a small room before another set of doors led into his office itself, which was also walled with mostly windows, however it had been furnished with blinds to give the element of privacy when conducting things such as private meetings. The smaller room contained shelving and a few filing cabinets as well as a desk covered in folders and papers which Nanaba was now moving behind. Clearly, as his personal assistant she was given this smaller office so she was close enough whenever she needed to bring something to his attention. He now moved forward towards his own office, and as he pushed open the doors a recollection of entering this very room as a younger man to receive his next set of orders, struck him. And he almost expected to see the dark outline of the former occupant standing in front of the window, his tall form silhouetted by the bright light coming through the windows. He walked up to it now moving lightly round the desk in the centre of the room. The entire back wall of the large room was made up of one large window, this one however had no blinds or coverings of any sort. Once, he had wondered what it was that always drew the other man to gaze out of the window, but now he could see it for himself and it was utterly enthralling. From this, the 63rd floor, he was offered an unspoiled view across the city, and looking down he realised that from here all the lives down on the streets was merely visible movement. And so he stood there, arms loosely linked behind his back, gazing down on the city. The sun reflected off the shining spires of the other skyscrapers that surrounded the one he was in. The buildings were so bright and glittering, like precious jewels, and yet his mind refused to be distracted by the visible beauty of the buildings. He had grown up in this city, and knew better than most of the evil that resided there. He chuckled humourlessly at the irony of the buildings he was looking at, as bright and beautiful externally as they were dark and vile and filled with secrets on the inside. Paradis City. The Shining City. He shook his head lightly, it was anything but when you got to the core of it.

Shocked from his thoughts by a knocking at the door, he whipped round to see Nanaba on the other side. Waving her in, he glanced once more out the window; the entirety of the city may be corrupt and dying but there were still some innocent and pure people living in the tainted streets he mused. “How can I help Nanaba?” he asked

“Ah Mr Ackerman, I was wondering whether you would be needing any help with the layout of the building” she replied, keeping a steady gaze which barely betrayed the slight embarrassment she appeared to be feeling at asking such a question, especially as the seconds of silence stretched.

“How long have you worked here? And did you work here when _he_ did, Nanaba?” he asked nodding his head towards the empty desk.

“Yes, I did Mr Ackerman sir. I’ve been here for about three years now” he nodded to confirm he had heard her. That would make sense, he pondered, he hadn’t been here in about six years, and back then it had been a young man, who’d always had a very nervous air about him, in her job. Briefly he wondered what happened to that young man, before brushing the thought aside.

“I should still know the rough layout of the building, so don’t worry about that. It’s just been a while since I’ve been here.”

“Um, Mr Ackerman, may I ask how you know? Because everyone else has been saying that they’ve never seen you before and never heard of you either, so I don’t really understand how you seem to know so much about the building….” She trailed off, her face flushed, head bowed slightly staring intently at her hands.

“I know, because I used to work for the company. However, the last time I was here was around six years ago. And no one here would really have ever seen me because I didn’t work in this building, I only came here for things like…. meetings and the like. Now obviously I understand your curiosity this time, and it was a reasonable question, however I would ask that you refrain from asking me questions like this in the future. There is no such time for idle chatting here. And I have one more request Nanaba, I would prefer it if you stopped calling me ‘Mr Ackerman’. My predecessor was Mr Ackerman, I am not.”

“What should I call you then sir?” she asked

“You can just call me Levi” he said after a slight pause for thought, “Now, let’s get back to work”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the first chapter of A Far Cry. I've had this concept stuck in my head for a while now, and a few weeks ago I decided to write it up. I've basically posted this chapter to see if there's anyone who likes the idea of the story, I dunno. If you do like it, do say, however this story is being written right now as I procrastinate from my GCSEs which I'm doing right now, so obviously I don't have loads of time to write at the moment. But past the 18th of June I'm basically going to be writing constantly so that's cool. So yeah, there won't be another chapter for a little while probably, but there will be another I can guarantee. I hope you like it  
> U x


	2. Chapter 2

Leaving the spare room he had changed into a small gym, Levi picked up his phone to change the music and check the time. It was 6:27. He still had a good hour and a half before he had to leave for work. After taking a quick shower, he glanced in the mirror, the evidence of his restless nights this week appeared to be written all over his face, in the prominent dark circles under his eyes. There was no point in trying to cover them, and it would just add to how all of his employees already perceived him. Levi had only been the head of Recon for three weeks and already everyone knew that he was cold and antisocial, and almost perpetually in a bad mood. He often heard whispers of how tired he looked, and even Nanaba had asked a couple of times if he was okay. Of course, she had given that up after he’d snapped at her saying he was completely fine. In his opinion it was nobody’s business if he was ‘unwell’ but his own, and he felt fine. Levi had had insomnia for most of his life, and while, admittedly, it had got worse with the new presence of the nightmares he had started having in the last several months, it was nothing he hadn’t learnt how to deal with.

The time managed to fly past and soon enough he was stepping out of the chauffeured car, and striding past the doorman, across the lobby and into the waiting elevator. Getting out on the top floor he made his way into his office, past Nanaba who was already sitting at her desk working. Barely glancing out the window he sat down at his own desk, sipping at the coffee he’d picked up on his way in to work. It had become a part of his routine to visit the coffee shop at 104 Maria street every morning. He had quickly realised the place was perfect for him, it was small and quiet and didn’t seem to be a part of the normal rush for caffeine made by the majority of commuters. The few people who were in there were mostly overworked and exhausted looking students; he had come to assume that the shop was open 24 hours a day, as he had come in early one morning to find a student in a state of deep sleep at one of the corner tables, as though they had been there all night. Even the baristas stuck to the theme of tranquillity in the building: the young man who served him most mornings always had a calm smile on his freckled face, and not once did Levi ever see it strain from its genuine nature.

Sighing, he focused on the work at hand. It wasn’t as though the work was taxing, he was probably better qualified than most to run the company in terms of life experience, but it was tedious after a while. He swiftly signed the document he’d been looking at and placed it in the out tray, picking up the next piece of paper in the pile. This one made him pause for a moment however, he quickly checked the date and cursed quietly under his breath, tomorrow was the last Friday of the month. Reaching over to the machine at the corner of his desk, he buzzed to Nanaba’s desk and called her in without looking up from the paper in his hand. A minute later he heard the swift nock on the door before it swung in and the quiet footsteps of his assistant approached his desk.

“You called, sir?” she said in a quiet tone. He’d quickly come to appreciate the fact that Nanaba was exceptionally perceptive, she’d noticed that he required absolute efficiency and speed when he asked for something and she’d also realised that he didn’t want excessive noise while he was working so in turn she always ensured that she spoke ever so slightly quieter when in his office.

“Do we still hold the meetings on the last Friday of every month, in which case is there one tomorrow?” he stated, straight to the point as usual. He noted the mild surprise that flashed on her face before being supressed. He had assumed that she would know what he was talking about and this appeared to confirm that assumption.

“Ah, yes sir. I believe it was temporarily put on hold this month, as you’ve only been here for three weeks they wanted you to be comfortably situated before the first meeting. But if you want to go ahead with the normal schedule I can contact Mr Zacharias for you and inform him”

“Call Zacharias and tell him to phone me himself, I have a few other things I need to discuss with him. That will be all” he replied, gesturing with one hand for her to leave as he looked back down at his papers and continued.

 

* * *

 

An hour and a half later, the phone on Levi’s desk began to ring. Putting aside his pen momentarily, he slowly reached over and accepted the call, immediately putting it onto speaker. Hearing his old friend’s voice ring round his office he suppressed the slight twitch of a smile, that even the most perceptive of people wouldn’t have spotted.

“Hello Mike, how’ve you been?” he said in his usual monotone

“Levi! It’s been quite a while since I last heard your voice hasn’t it. Six years is quite a while to drop off the grid for you know” Mike replied with a chuckle, Levi merely hummed in response. “How was army life for you kid?”

“Don’t call me ‘kid’ Mike, you’re barely three years older than me. So, I wanted to talk to you about the meeting tomorrow. Nanaba mentioned that you were thinking about putting it off for a while so I have a chance to ‘settle’ but I’m going to go ahead and assume that it can still go ahead tomorrow if I want it to”

“Hm, you haven’t changed that much then, still not one for small talk are you. But yes, I can have it organised so that the meeting will go ahead tomorrow. Most of the group haven’t changed since you left but your uncle did make a few additions. However I must tell you, not many people know who the new head is. Only a select few of us were at the reading of the will, and we elected not to reveal your identity in case you decided not to take up the role-”

“Oh so there was an option for me not to become head? And you’re only telling me this now?” Levi cut him off, the slight smirk on his face echoed in his tone.

“Well, we assumed that if you, of all people, didn’t want the responsibility of the position then you wouldn’t do it under any circumstances” Levi let out a slight derisive snort at this, but Mike continued anyway “And anyway, those of us who do know it’s you have all agreed that you’re the perfect candidate. You know all the ins and outs of the family without having ever been directly involved with any of it, which means you’ve never been involved in any of the petty internal squabbles, and we both know you wouldn’t put up with any of that anyway. And honestly, I don’t think anyone is as qualified to run Recon as you are, no one else has the military knowledge and experience that you do and you’re definitely not one to make rash decisions-” he was cut off again.

“Alright, alright, jeez what is this praise Levi time? I don’t want to hear all this shit Mike. I may be this so called ‘perfect candidate’ but that doesn’t mean that I can do the work any faster if you’re going to waste my time rambling for hours. Just make sure that they know the meeting is tomorrow as usual, and leave me in peace so I can actually get some work done” he said sharply.

“Yes boss, see you tomorrow then” was the last he heard before Mike hung up. Levi shuffled the paperwork on his desk and sighed again, a gesture he seemed to be performing far too frequently these days. Thinking back on the conversation he’d just finished, he contemplated Mike’s words. He’d been away from this world for six long years and now he was about to jump right back in as though nothing had changed. And to be honest, here, not much had changed, the atmosphere was still the same, the motives were still the same, the monthly meetings still occurred at the same time and in the same place and, hell, Mike had said that even the people were still mostly the same, with only a few new faces thrown into the mix. And yet, for Levi, everything had changed. Sure, the people and place were still the same, but his very being and outlook had been warped by his experiences. And even though Mike made it sound like a good thing, he wasn’t all too keen on the idea of being the ‘perfect candidate’ to run a powerful Mafia family, and there had certainly been times when he had wondered how much better his life could have been if he hadn’t had the experiences that made him fit to lead Recon. But then, he thought, he himself had made the choices that led him to this point, and there was no way he would allow himself to regret them no matter how much damage they had caused. He shook off these thoughts, his mind instead turning towards how the meeting the following day could possibly turn out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it turns out I'm an absolute liar, and there was literally no wait before I had this chapter finished. Instead of waiting until I had plenty of time to write I decided to just waste a whole day when I should have been revising to write instead. This is actually a shorter chapter, but this was merely because this was the easiest place to cut it off. Nothing much happened here but really it was just a way of setting up for the next chapter in which I guess some vaguely more plot stuff happens. Also there definitely won't be any updates over the next week as I have five of my hardest/most important exams, but after that I'm on half term so hopefully I can get a couple of chapters out then. Finally, I hope you like it and thank you to the lovely people who have left kudos so far :)  
> U x


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight warning for mildly graphic descriptions of character death during this chapter.

When he walked into work the next day he could instantly tell who knew of the other side of Recon. Even if they look utterly composed to the average viewer, he could easily spot the tensed shoulders among the people who bustled through the lobby. Their calm façade would only crack if they saw him walking by, and then their faces would pale slightly. Finally reaching his office, he nodded to Nanaba as he headed in to find Mike sitting in front of his desk. When he noticed him enter, Mike stood, nodding his head.

“I thought this damned meeting was at 10, so why am I seeing your ugly mug half an hour early?” he questioned with no sincerity behind the insult.

“I decided it might be beneficial if we went over how this meeting is going to go together before it happens, prepare for any outcome” Levi considered his words before nodding and taking a seat behind his desk.

The half hour passed quickly as they talked, and too soon Nanaba was sticking her head round the door to inform them they were gathering in conference room D. They both rose from their seats and headed down towards the 42nd floor where the many conference rooms could be found. When they reached the room, he could see the figures within through the glass in the door and Levi found himself stopping, hand hovering just above the door handle. He flinched violently when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder and he whipped around to see Mike looking down at him with a faint glimmer of concern in his eyes.

“You don’t have to do this today you know. We can still call it off” Mike spoke softly.

“Of course I’m doing this today” Levi snapped as he roughly shoved away Mike’s hand, “I’m just not fond of touching door handles that all of those shit heads have put their hands all over, God only knows where those hands have been” he grimaced, disgust evident on his features. Mike snorted lightly before reaching round Levi and pulling open the door. Levi turned and walked through the now open door and taking in the people who had turned as he entered. Swiftly he noted four unfamiliar faces and two that were missing from the gathering. He managed to suppress the sneer and keep his face utterly expressionless as he saw the man moving towards him with a smirk slapped across his face – Nile Dok, the very name was as unpleasant as the man himself.

“Well, look who it is, Kenny’s little attack dog. First you betray us and then you come crawling back years later. But Kenny’s dead and buried isn’t he, so have you come looking for your new master little dog?” Dok sneered mockingly. But before Levi could reply, Dok turned to Mike “Speaking of, where is this new boss you told us about?” Mike glanced at Levi who gave him an almost imperceptible nod in reply before carefully moving through the group towards the seat at the head of the table that had always been his Uncle’s and taking a seat just in time as Mike replied simply “He’s right there.”

Levi smirked internally at the shock painted on the faces of those in the room. “You’re right for once Nile, Uncle Kenny is dead, and while he made a lot of mistakes in his time, he didn’t fail when it came to preparing me for taking his place” he stated emotionlessly.

“You…You’re Kenny’s heir?” Nile stuttered in his disbelief, “Then why did he treat you like shit, make you do all his dirty work?”

“Tch, ever thought that that was his own twisted way of preparing me for the world? Now, I may have been gone for six or seven years but I still know how these things work. So, what’s the current status of the other families around here?”

“Not much has changed in the past few years sir. The Demusz family were essentially disbanded four years ago, after the leaders were massacred by a rival family. For us though, most of our associates are still the same, our main problems are still the same few people and groups, although we’ve got a lot more friendly with the big family in the Shiganshina area in the last couple of years” Levi thought over what the man had just said, he didn’t know his name and he was one of the four new faces at the table.

“The gang from Shiganshina you say? I seem to remember them being quite the irritant back then. How ‘friendly’ are they being now?”

“Ah they’ve settled down a bit since then sir, they haven’t attacked any of our branches for years. Also I heard that a representative of theirs tried to get in contact with Kenny a little while ago, but nothing came of it.” It was a more familiar face that replied this time, Levi thought him to be called Bardock or something similar, he’d been a new addition just before Levi had left. Levi merely hummed in response before moving the meeting on to a different topic.

Just over an hour later, and Levi found himself back in his office with Mike. Normally the meetings would last a lot longer than that, but this had been his first at the top of the chain of command and so it had ended quicker than normal. Mike sat back in his chair and watched Levi closely.

“Well, that went fairly smoothly I’d say, even if Nile is still-”

“An arrogant pig?” Levi interjected quickly.

“Quite. But still they seemed to accept you being the new head fairly well” Levi hummed thoughtfully as he considered the meeting.

“Do you think that maybe they were just a bit too accommodating? From experience I’d say that there’s always at least one man in the crowd who will disagree with a change, and this is a major upheaval of power we’re talking about here; there should have been at least some questioning of my position in there”

“Hm, maybe. But perhaps not. I can see that you do not completely trust the family yet, I can definitely see the sense in that. With what you just said it would be most wise if we did keep an eye out for any muttering in the ranks”

“Misplaced trust will only get you killed” Levi murmured staring at some invisible blemish on his desk, and Mike got the sense that the words had not been for him. The mood in the spacious office had suddenly swung to something almost morose and so he cast around for a way to move the conversation on.

“What’s your opinion on the situation with the Shiganshina family by the way?” he asked, struck with a sudden reminder of a point in the meeting that had seemed to interest Levi. It worked, as Levi met Mike’s eye and spoke once again in his usual tone.

“Bardock I think mentioned that the head tried to reach out to Kenny once. Maybe we should take a chance and see what he has to say. At some point in the future we should think more on perhaps arranging a meeting. However, I have only just taken control, and it would perhaps be better to focus more on any slight issues rather close to home before moving up to things like that. I suggest we talk more in a few weeks once time has been given for control of the family to settle.”

* * *

 

The wind howled around him as he ran. He was light and agile on his feet, his speed and power befitting of his title. A quick and subtle flick of his fingers sending the plan onto those running behind him and he jumped, effortlessly swinging between the buildings as he activated the gear tied around his hips. Now the wind seemed to be dying down, the whistle of the gear being the only noise in the nearly oppressive silence. He could hear his squad moving behind him, just as skilled as he was. A ringing started up in the distance. Someone had sounded the alarm. This shouldn’t be happening. Had they been betrayed? Distracted thoughts whirled through his mind. A bullet whipped past him. His stomach clenched painfully at the sound. He knew what was coming next.

There was a ringing sound behind him, the sound of a bullet hitting metal. Then the sound of another bullet ripping through the metal casing. A scream ripped through the air. He felt his head turn, he didn’t want to watch this, he’d replayed this scene so many times, but no amount of mental struggle could stop his head from turning in time to see Gunther hit a wall with more force than the body should be placed under. He found he couldn’t turn his head as the body of his comrade fell. It hit the ground with a sickening thud and he felt his stomach turn when he saw the angle of Gunther’s neck. It was wrong, so wrong. He heard Petra scream in loss and he finally turned away.

They carried on. Flying through the air at high speeds. Quickly anchoring on walls before flinging themselves forward once more. In the distance he could see the tall trees of the forest. Levi knew that if they could reach that tree line they would have a slight hope of escaping. But the trees came no closer and the bullets were still tearing past him. His head whipped round as he heard screaming again. His lungs stuttered painfully at the sight that greeted him. Eld was hanging from the side of a building. His hooks, buried in the wall, keeping him from falling. He was upside down a hole ripped through his neck, blood pouring out, running along his face, staining his blond hair. And etched on his face was an eternal look of pain and horror. Two down. Now only three remaining.

But still he kept going. They needed to reach those trees. And yet that line of hope remained distant and elusive, no matter how hard he pushed or fast he flew. This time there was a sickening crunch, and once more he whipped round to see Petra falling. Mouth wide open in a silent scream, eyes wide, cold, horrified, dead. A large hole was torn through her left temple. Now it was only himself and Oluo left.

The other man roared in anger and pain at the site of the woman falling and he faltered in his journey. Levi heard a voice screaming at him to keep moving before realising it was his own voice. But his frantic words did not reach the distraught man in front of him. And he watched as seven bullets ripped through Oluo’s chest, and then he too fell to the ground. Levi turned away for the last time. He renewed his efforts and now the trees were finally becoming closer. He felt a sting in his ankle as he surged forward but it was clouded by the adrenaline rushing through his entire body. He finally reached the tree line and landed on a branch as the sounds of bullets faded in the distance. But as he landed on the wide branch pain ripped through his ankle and he toppled forwards. Falling.

And then Levi’s eyes were snapping open and he was sitting up breathless, panting and heart pounding. His eyes flicked round the room taking in the stark white walls and the crisp white sheets that were pooling round his waist. It quickly registered that he was in a military hospital of sorts. There was another presence in the room, and he looked up to see a slim figure resting in the doorway. His eyes caught on light ginger shoulder-length hair and he felt his eyes widen in shock.

“Petra,” he called out, his voice sounded weird, scratchy and as if he was hearing it from far away. She turned at his call though, a gentle smile resting on her delicate features. With barely a noise she walked over to his bed and leaning over she reached out towards him, fingers stretching to brush the hair out of his face.

But then her reach changed and she was grabbing his throat harshly. Her fingers tightened and he felt his windpipe crushing slightly and his breathing stuttering. He wanted to claw at the hands encircling his throat but his arms were like lead, hanging heavily at his side. The gentle smile on her face was morphing, twisting to a grimace of pain as her hair began to darken with the blood that was starting to run down her temple. A darkened spot was growing under the blood, and he could only watch hopelessly as the mark become a pinprick sized hole that grew and grew until he could see light through it. And still her fingers squeezed at his throat, her pretty features marred by her eternal dying grimace of pain and horror. Dark spots impinged on the edge of his vision and his lungs faltered as the room went black.

He jerked up, a scream ripping from his throat, at the afterimage of Petra’s face imprinted in the dark in front of him. He flung the silk sheets aside and staggered blindly into the bathroom. He twisted the taps on violently, scrubbing at his face with his hands. He stood there for a minute, head hung, hands resting on either side of the sink.

Levi finally raised his head towards the mirror, his pale face looked like something out of a nightmare. And then his eyes were drawn to the figure reflected behind him. The man was staring at him with his head tilted to one side, and Levi knew that no one should have their neck at that angle. His arm raised, reaching out towards Levi, resting on his shoulder lightly. At this Levi was snapped from his shocked stillness and whipped around. Gunther wasn’t there, the room was empty as it should be. Yet still he could feel the cold imprint of where fingers had rested on his skin.

He didn’t want to be in this cold, empty apartment anymore. Grabbing a towel, he dried of the remnants of water from his skin before throwing on some workout clothes and fleeing the apartment.

Swiftly he found himself down on the street and he started jogging, not caring where he was headed. After a minute he glance down at the watch he’d thrown on to check the time. **3.57**. He’d barely slept for two hours. He kept running, brushing off the edges of sleep that clung onto him.

* * *

 

The next time he glanced down at the watch it was getting closer to 5.30 am. The side effects of maintaining a habit of never getting enough sleep were starting to wear upon him and his movements were starting to get sluggish. Looking round he realised that he had ended up looping round to end up somewhere just over halfway between his apartment and Recon. But he didn’t want to return to his bed, after his nightmare only a couple of hours ago he had resolved that he was not going to sleep again before he started work at 9.

With a better grip on his surroundings now he realised he had just turned onto the end of Maria Street. This was almost perfect, the coffee shop he had taken to visiting on his way to work was on Maria Street wasn’t it? He’d wondered before it was open 24hours, but now was the time to find out, if it was then he could grab a coffee and then the caffeine could fend off sleep for a few more hours. Mind made up, he started jogging again, heading up to the street. He felt a faint sting of relief when he finally saw the light from the shop spilling out into the dim street.

Reaching out to brush back his slightly damp hair from his eyes, he pushed open the door with his shoulder, the warmth of the shop almost immediately surrounding him. The lights were not so bright that they would dazzle anybody coming in from the darker streets and so Levi glanced around the place taking in the few customers scattered at the tables. He almost smirked at the sight of a student in the corner, typing furiously at his laptop and chugging a rather large coffee, especially when he recognised him as the same student he’d seen a few times slumped in his seat fast asleep in the mornings. Turning to the counter there was, rather unsurprisingly, only one worker behind it. He was tall, but slumped against the back counter, all his attention captured by something on the phone in his hands. His fairly long brown hair shielded his face from Levi. He’d probably judge the boy to be a college student of some sort. The boy didn’t appear to be going to look up from his phone any time soon, so Levi cleared his throat slightly and said “Oi” in a slightly colder tone than usual.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping at this time?” the boy replied without looking up from his phone. His voice was deeper than Levi had expected, and it caused him to pause for just a second before replying.

“If I wanted to be sleeping, I wouldn’t be in a coffee shop now, would I?” Levi spoke, his tone laced with sarcasm. At his words the boy’s head finally snapped up, a look of horror and slight shock on his face. Levi knew that if he hadn’t had as much skill in keeping his face completely blank of unwanted emotion, then he would have currently been looking very shocked. He was completely captivated by the boy’s eyes that were staring right at him, wide open. They were utterly incredibly, the left was a green ish blue, that was almost verging on turquoise in colour, while the right was a vibrant gold. They were beautiful, _if slightly too large_ muttered the rational functioning part of his brain. And then the boy opened his mouth to speak, and tone verging on accusing he spoke.

“Fuck, you’re not Mikasa.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back... finally. Didn't manage to update over half term, but instead we got a slightly longer chapter and finally Eren turned up! Just gonna throw out a slight disclaimer in the fact that I'm a super slow updater and there will probably be times where I don't post for ages, because I can only really write when i get struck by inspiration and also I'm lazy as hell and procrastinate a lot. But this story is really fun to write so I'm actually gonna try and finish it for once. Anyway, hope you like this chapter. Thank you to everyone who has left kudos, you are very appreciated.  
> U x


	4. Chapter 4

_“Fuck, you’re not Mikasa.”_

The boy had immediately straightened up from the counter he had been leaning against and no appeared to be attempting to apologise.

“I’m so sorry, you just had the same tone of voice for a second there. I shouldn’t have been so rude, it’s just that Mikasa normally comes over to check on me when I have this shift. She says she doesn’t like me working here because of where it is. I mean I don’t see the big deal personally but she always comes in anyway and-”

“Alright kid, I came in for a coffee not your bloody life story.” He said sharply, cutting off the boy’s rambling. At Levi’s words the tips of his ears tinged red in embarrassment.

“Er, right” he said clearing his throat before his face brightened once more, “what would you like then sir?”

“A regular black coffee”

“And would that be to stay in or take out?”

“Stay in” He nodded reaching over for one of the cups stacked on the shelf above him. “My name’s Eren by the way” he said as he turned back towards Levi.

“Didn’t ask for that either brat,” Levi watched as a slight furrow appeared on the boy’s- _Eren’s_ forehead at his abrupt response. Eren picked up a cleaning cloth and quickly wiped the inside of the cup before starting to turn back to the machine. But he was stopped again by Levi’s voice.

“Can you clean that again kid?” he asked although it came out less as a question and more as an order. The furrow on his head deepened as he picked up the cleaning cloth again.  Levi watched his cleaning with a critical eye, the kid wouldn’t be doing any good like that he thought. Just as Eren set the cloth back down, he couldn’t help himself from saying “Actually can you do that again please.”

Eren’s face dropped as he picked up the cloth for a third time. Levi just couldn’t help it, the café was pretty clean (albeit not quite reaching his high standards) but honestly who knew what could be in those cups. He shuddered slightly at the thought.

“You know what, just put it in a cup to take out would you.” He said finally, Eren turned and setting the cup down slightly harder than necessary in his irritation he made the coffee as swiftly as he could. Levi paid and picked up the cup heading over to one of the small tables.

He stayed there for about 20 minutes before glancing down at his watch and standing once more. He figured if he headed back to his apartment now then he’d have plenty of time to do his workout and perhaps do some paperwork before his car arrived. Levi paused as he reached the door. Turning back towards the counter he called out to Eren who was back to leaning against the counter on his phone. “You know kid, your girlfriend is right to worry about you working here at this time, this is gang territory after all.”

Eren’s head snapped up at his words, and Levi couldn’t help the slight smirk that appeared at the sight of the look of slight shock and horror that descended on the boy’s features. And without a word more he opened the door and walked out into the soft light of early dawn.

* * *

His shift had dragged on after the mysterious man had left. Working at this time was never the busiest by any length, but it had seemed even slower this evening as he thought over the earlier encounter. The man had seemed rather rude to Eren, but then again, he wondered, perhaps that was due to the fact he’d sworn at him. Surely it was everyone’s right to be rude at 5am? Although he was probably just using that as an excuse for himself.  


And then there was what the man had said as he left. Eren knew there were gangs in the city, he scoffed aloud at the thought, God did he know. But was the café really in gang territory? Was that why Mikasa didn’t like him working here at night? Did that mean Mikasa knew about gangs in the city? He had so many questions now but even fewer answers.

Slowly but steadily his shift was drawing to a close, and a few of the very early commuters were beginning to trickle in as he waited for Marco to arrive and take over the morning shift. He felt his phone buzz in his back pocket as he busied himself making the caramel latte for the business woman on the other side of the counter. Two drinks later and he subtly pulled out his phone to see a new message notification.

**New Message**

_Mikasa (6.47) – Got held up at work tonight, will come meet you after your shift._

He smiled slightly at the text. His sister had always worried a lot. It was just in her nature to be incredibly protective over him and he didn’t mind… most of the time. She had a nasty habit of scaring off any of his potential romantic interests which he was never particularly fond of. If she couldn’t come to visit during his late-night shifts, Mikasa would always come over to the café to walk him home. Eren had always just considered it just an odd little quirk of hers, but now with the information he had learnt that morning he could appreciate this little habit more. While he had taken self-defence classes once and was fairly confident he could protect himself, he knew Mikasa was highly proficient in mixed martial arts and, even though he would never tell her, he would feel safer walking gang territory with her by his side. More people entered, so he swept aside his thoughts on the matter for a while as he busied himself making drinks.

At 7.25 on the dot Marco walked in, smiling as per usual. He headed into the back after sending a slight wave towards Eren. When he reappeared, he headed round the counter to join Eren, still tying his apron up. They quickly slipped into their usual routine when they had shifts together with Marco on the tills and Eren making the drinks. He liked to tell himself this was because he was better at making them, but he was well aware that really it was because he often didn’t have the best attitude, especially on the very early and very late shifts. As the clock ticked past 8am, and the official end of Eren’s shift came and went, when there was a break in the flow of customers Marco turned to him with a slight questioning look in his eyes.

“Not like you to willingly hang around after a night shift Eren, any particular reason you’ve decided to today?” he asked pleasantly.

“Not really, Mikasa wanted to meet me here after my shift so I thought I may as well help you out while you’re waiting for Jean to turn up. Because honestly it would take a bloody miracle for him to actually get here on time” Marco laughed slightly at his response. He thanked him slightly for the thought before turning back to the till. For all Marco tried to excuse everyone’s shortcomings, even he couldn’t discount the way the horse faced student was perpetually late for his shifts.

Together they continued serving until eventually at around 8.20 the door opened again and when Eren glanced up he was met with a heavy glare from his sister. His eyes quickly flicked to the person entering the shop behind her, and he instantly linked him as the reason for the rather hostile look present on Mikasa’s features.

“Hey there horseface, what brings you here this fine morning?” he asked brightly, smirking at the unfortunate boy.

“I had to give him a lift otherwise he would have been even later” the irritation was heavy in Mikasa’s tone. Eren laughed slightly as she glared once more at Jean and he quickly moved into the back room to start his shift. Once he was gone Mikasa turned back to Eren, her glare softening “Sorry I was late, I got caught up in commuter traffic on my way home from work”

“It’s fine,” he said, waving off her apology, “you really don’t have to check up on me like this you know.” Mikasa started speaking at this but he cut her off as he said “But, I think I get why you do it now.” At his statement Mikasa face dropped to a look of honest surprise before she quickly wiped off the emotion, replacing it with her normal blank look.

“What do you mean?” she asked. To anyone else the words were toneless and conveyed no emotion, but Eren knew her well enough to be able to detect the curiosity that was just below the surface.

“Well, this shop is in gang territory isn’t it?” he stated, phrasing it as more of a question. Mikasa’s eyes widened for a split second before narrowing quickly into a very dangerous look, next to him Marco coughed and looked down at the floor.

“And why would you say that? Where did you hear that?” she asked, keeping her voice low so as not to attract the attention of any of the customers.

“Just some dude who came in this morning, why does it even matter anyway?” apparently Jean had rejoined them at some point during the conversation as he was the next to pipe up.

“Because dumbass, only people in the mafias and gangs or people who are linked to members know where the territories lie.” Eren glared at him before turning to the other two. Taking in Marco’s downturned eyes and Mikasa who was giving Jean an annoyed look.

“So… which are you guys then, members or not?” he couldn’t help the slight hint of bitterness from entering his tone. He didn’t want to hear their answers, especially not Mikasa’s as he knew that she was aware of his feelings about the gangs that were rumoured to be all over Paradis.

“It’s just Jean and I who are members, Marco only knows because of him” she at least had the decency to look away from his eyes with a tinge of embarrassment on her face. She looked back at him before speaking once more “Look we should really be heading home now, we can talk more about this later. But for now, you have a class at 10 and we’re definitely going to get caught in traffic at this time.” He merely nodded before heading into the back room where he exchanged the apron for his jacket and grabbing his backpack from his small locker he rejoined his sister out the front. Eren nodded to Marco and Jean as he headed through the door with Mikasa at his side.

As they started walking towards where Mikasa’s car was parked he heard a car pull up outside the coffee shop. A car door opened and there was the clicking of shoes on the sidewalk. He felt an unfamiliar sensation prickling at the back of his neck as though he were being watched, and he paused for a second turning his head back the way he’d come. But there was no one looking at him. His eyes were instantly drawn to a short man in a sharp suit and a dark overcoat sweeping in to the coffee shop. Eren couldn’t help the involuntary intake of breath as he noticed the man’s black hair was cut into a rather distinctive undercut. He turned back towards Mikasa, who had stopped a couple of steps in front and was looking at him oddly. He shook any thoughts of the dark-haired man from his mind and continued with his sister.

* * *

Picking up his coffee from the desk Levi swivelled in his chair to stare broodingly out of the window. He glared again at the report he held in his left hand as he took a sip from the drink he was cradling in his other hand. He heard the elevator doors ping and long self-assured strides crossing the floor towards the door to Nanaba’s office. After his nightmare that morning and his ensuing lack of sleep combined with this being his fourth cup of the day, in his current odd half-exhausted-half-extremely-alert state his ears were pricking at the slightest noise. The door to his office swung open, and he carefully spun around to face the door, placing the items in his hands on the desk as he peered over his thin framed glasses at his assistant who had just stepped into his office.

“Mr Zacharias is here to see you Levi, sir” she said with a light smile on her face as the tall blond man entered. “Also you have another meeting request regarding File 17d from Dr Zoe. Accept or Deny?”

“Deny, and please tell the good doctor that I will speak to them when I have the time, and would they please stop making official meeting requests.” He said abruptly. Nanaba nodded and left, shutting the door behind her. Levi rolled his eyes as Mike grinned.

“I wasn’t aware we were still using those old codes?” he said, withheld laughter evident in his voice.

“Tch. Honestly the only person who’s still doing that is that utter lunatic and you know it. Now, as for the reason I called you here today. This morning I received a meeting request from the head of that Shiganshina group we were discussing the other day. Now I know we previously agreed that perhaps it would be best to get the family completely settled before arranging any meeting such as this proposed one. However, I was considering, that since they have already approached us about a meeting we could just accept now.”

“Hmm, if we accept it could be considered as a display of our unity under new leadership. Even if that isn’t strictly definite right now, it would still have a potentially positive effect on this meeting. I would agree that we should go ahead in arranging the meeting.”

“I’m pleased you agree, but obviously I can’t just go straight ahead with this ‘display of unity’ if that display has absolutely no foundation in truth. I shall call a meeting to discuss it before we go ahead. Additionally, I would like for you to be the one to arrange this entire proposed meeting, after all you are essentially our public relations specialist,” there was a slight lilt of amusement in his tone as he spoke those words, “You should discuss with Nanaba when I will be free for this.”

Mike nodded as he stood, beginning to head for the door he was stopped as Levi spoke once more. “One last thing, are you aware if my cousin is still a part of the family?”

“Last I’d heard Levi, I think she’s mostly just working as a low-level enforcer at the moment though.” Levi didn’t reply, merely looking back to his paperwork and drinking some more coffee as he reached for his pen. Mike took this as his cue to leave and shut the door behind him as carefully as possible so as not to disturb his friend while he was working. As he sat in front of Nanaba’s desk he couldn’t help but cast a quick glance toward the man in the other room. Levi was looking ever so slightly more haggard every time they met, and it was obvious to Mike that the dark smudges under his eyes were strengthening. He tried to brush off the worry, but it still tinged the corners of his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got the next chapter up, sorry it took so long. I have a lot more free time at the moment so I'm going to try and make updates a tad more frequent.  
> It's like 2am right now so I haven't checked the chapter too thoroughly so sorry for any glaring errors, I will check and fix any in the morning.  
> Also sorry this chapter was so much dialogue. For Levi at the moment it's going to mostly just be build up for plot which does require quite a lot of dialogue. But I did manage to get a little Eren pov in there. This story will mostly be Levi pov but i will throw in a few Eren ones as well. Anyway hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you so much to everyone who left kudos and bookmarked.  
> U x


	5. Chapter 5

For the rest of the day Eren’s mind worked restlessly with the new information he’d gained. He and Mikasa had not yet had a chance to talk. She had been right about them getting caught in traffic and by the time they were back at their apartment he only had time to shower and get ready before he had to leave and head to college. Annoyingly it was his fullest day and so he barely had the time to text Mikasa to ask if they could talk that evening. She had quickly replied that she wasn’t working that night so of course they should talk.

When he did finally get back home, he threw his bag down and kicked off his trainers calling out to his sister. There was no reply, so he headed into the small kitchen, there was a note resting on the counter. Apparently she was out at the gym and would be back soon enough. He sighed, he knew that she went to the gym almost every day, but he couldn’t help the part of him that thought she was just delaying their conversation as much as she could. Leaving the kitchen he grabbed his bag from where he’d left it by the door and headed into his room. Grabbing his work he sat at his desk. He sighed deeply, he could feel a headache coming on. Resting his elbows on the edge of the desk, he massaged his temples gently with the tips of his fingers. The words on the paper in front of him were just a blurry jumble as his mind continued to focus on the impending conversation with his sister. Pushing away the French assignment he stood and went back to the kitchen. To try and keep his mind off it all, he grabbed some ingredients from the fridge and laid them out on the countertop eyeing them critically.

He’d always enjoyed cooking. It was very relaxing for his mind at times. He’d never held much store in sticking closely to a recipe and loved to experiment with flavour combinations. Eren knew he was no Gordon Ramsay but it brought him a certain pleasure and a link to his mother that he couldn’t find anywhere else. Carla Jaeger had always been caught up in the kitchen in Eren’s memories, her powder blue apron stained with flour and assorted spices. She had instilled in Eren a wonderful creativity that was only truly evident in his experimental cooking. Often such experiments turned out well but sometimes they were truly dreadful. However, whatever it was he and Mikasa would always force it down even if only to laugh together at how horribly it had turned out. And so his mother’s passion had turned into something he could use to bring peace to his frantic mind and a shared happiness between the siblings.

He was just placing the latest dish into the oven as he heard the scrape of keys in the lock that signalled Mikasa’s return. The door opened and shut and her set of keys fell into the bowl in the hallway with a small clang. At the sound of footsteps in the entryway to the kitchen, he turned to greet his sister. Her black hair was covering her eyes, preventing him from reading her expression, but she was fidgeting slightly with the red scarf she wore almost constantly, pulling it up to cover her mouth – a sure sign of her apprehension of the situation. She took a seat at the table quietly and in turn Eren pulled out the chair opposite her. As he lowered into the seat his phone pinged, and he pulled it out quickly.

**New Message**

_Dad (5.54) – There are a couple of things I need to discuss with you. I will be at yours within 5 mins._

His heart sunk at the sight of the message. Apparently this was evident on his face as Mikasa raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

“It’s from Dad,” he stated in reply.

“Oh,” she said softly, “When will you need to leave to go see him?”

“He’s coming here apparently,” his slight confusion could be heard in his voice and Mikasa even looked surprised by this, “Says he’ll be here within five minutes.”

“Oh, well if he wants to talk to you I should just go to my room. He won’t want to talk to me I don’t think. But don’t think I’m ignoring this situation Eren, we can talk once he’s left.” And with that, before Eren could get another word in, she rose from her chair and headed into her own room, shutting the door carefully behind her. Mikasa’s actions confused him slightly, but he was more preoccupied with the fact that his father was coming to see him here. Whenever he had anything to say to him Eren would always be summoned to his side. So why would he be coming to Eren instead this time? There was only one solution to that question that he could think of. His father would be bringing news Eren would rather not receive and was trying to save himself any embarrassment from Eren’s reaction. Which would probably be rather extreme, as he was rather temperamental at the best of times and his father’s new was often very unwelcome. As he pondered this the doorbell rang, followed by a heavy knocking. Eren rose slowly from his chair and headed to the door.

When he opened it he was faced by the imposing figure of Grisha Jaeger. Even if he wasn’t four inches taller than Eren, Grisha always managed to tower over people. His dark coat and the hall light reflecting off his round glasses, shielding his eyes from view made for a very intimidating man. Eren stepped aside to let him in and followed him into the kitchen where Grisha took the seat that Mikasa had so recently vacated. Eren elected to remain standing, leaning back against the counter.

“Hello son, you’re looking well,” Grisha spoke, breaking the silence that lay heavy in the room.

“As are you dad. May I ask why you’re here?” Eren’s reply was short, trying to remove any hardness from his clipped tone.

“Do I need a reason to visit my son?” he asked with a slight smile, at the stony look on Eren’s face his smile fell and he sighed deeply before continuing, “I would like you to come and help me out with the family business.” At his words Eren laughed harshly.

“The family business?! I’ve told you before, and I will tell you again I will have no part in your sordid affairs. Your so called ‘family’ business got my mother killed, and yet you want me to take part in it all?” he spat the words harshly at his father.

“Eren, you know I never intended for you and your mother to get caught up in any of this. But the fact remains that you are my sole heir, and when I die it will all fall to you whether you accept it or not. The Family is in your future, and I only wish to prepare you for this. All you need to do for now is accompany me to one meeting. That’s all I’m asking Eren. Can you not do even that for your own father?” Grisha rose from his seat and made his way back into the hallway, Eren followed silently. As he pulled open the door, Grisha paused and turned back towards him, “I will need an answer soon Eren.” And with that he swept out the door leaving Eren deep in thought.

The door slammed shut, and Eren found himself leaning against the wall for support. His father’s words were sitting heavily in his mind. He didn’t like what his father did, that would probably never change. But he couldn’t deny the fact that Grisha hadn’t just abandoned them. After all, he had paid for the flat they lived in and was paying for his college tuition. Perhaps it had all just been his way of apologising. When Carla had died, everything had been fine for about a year, but then Grisha’s grief had reached a peak and he became more and more absent over the next few years. Two years later he went to work one day and didn’t return to the family home for months and maintained no contact with either of his children, other than paying the bills and sending them money to support themselves with. But then he had returned and continued to support them. However for Eren, the damage was already done. Maybe he could do this one thing for his father. It was just one meeting wasn’t it? Did he even owe him that much? He was overwhelmed and sank to the floor, his back to the wall, and cradled his head in his hands. Deep in his thoughts he almost didn’t hear Mikasa leaving her room, until she crouched down next to him, wrapping her arms around him as he shook with emotion.

* * *

 

Snapping awake, he sat up quickly. His head spun at the sudden movement and he had to put a hand down to balance himself. His breathing was rough and he could feel his heart thumping rapidly against his ribcage. As he regained his senses he raised a hand to his face and his breathing stuttered as his fingertips grazed the wet trails on his cheeks. He was crying. Levi knew that he hadn’t cried in so long. He hadn’t cried for Petra and Gunther and the others. He hadn’t cried for his uncle. Had he really not cried since Farlan and Izzy? He shook his head roughly, he mustn’t let his mind go down that track. Pulling himself from the harsh clutches of the bed sheets, he stumbled into the bathroom to wash his face of the rapidly drying salty tracks that crossed his pale skin. He didn’t dare to look in the mirror. Levi could feel the presence behind him, but he couldn’t bring himself to find out who it was this time. Instead he fled the bathroom, threw on some of his running gear and a watch and left the apartment.

It had been three weeks since his first late night run had led him to the coffee shop and to meeting the brat with the beautiful eyes. Since then the nightmares that shocked him awake had become more and more frequent, and so far the only thing that helped was his running. Bitterly he wished he could run away from all of his problems as easily. Soon enough he was reaching the soft lights of the 104th as he’d found out the shop was nicknamed. Pushing open the door with his shoulder his troubled thoughts brightened slightly when he saw the bicoloured eyes grinning at him from behind the counter. Over his multiple visits in the last few weeks they had slipped into a routine of sorts. He would sit at the counter drinking a regular black coffee from one of the paper cups while the boy, Eren he remembered, would talk quietly about the most random of topics. Or on nights where Eren didn’t feel like talking, he would lean against the back counter scrolling through Tumblr on his phone, while Levi would plan out his days work, with a clean biro the boy kept for him, on one of the paper napkins. Occasionally he wouldn’t be working the night shift and so Levi would just take his coffee to one of the cleaner booths in the corner.

For some reason Levi found it strangely comforting listening to the boy’s rambling. The topics would range from how cruel one of the professors on his business course was to how angry he was at his father he was for _something_ his father had done or said. Levi always zoned out of that topic when it came up, it hit slightly too close to home for his liking.

He moved over to the counter as Eren started making his coffee. Levi sat and went to pull out his wallet, only to realise a second later that he must have forgotten to pick it up.

“Hey kid, don’t bother with the coffee. I appear to have forgotten to pick up my wallet.” He called out. Eren turned and placed the already finished drink in front of him flashing him a cheeky grin.

“Oops, well it’s already done so just have it. On the house,” Levi shook his head and pushed it back towards him.

“Don’t want to get you in trouble for giving out free drinks brat,” the brat grinned again at his reply.

“Well, if you really are against taking a free drink, I can always just add it onto one of your morning bills…”

“Are you stalking me now kid? Because I’ve sure as hell never seen you on a morning shift,” Eren’s grin was a bit more sheepish this time.

“I’m not stalking you!” he exclaimed, “I’ve just seen you coming in once or twice as I’m leaving when my shift over runs. But you’re right, I don’t usually work mornings. Only afternoons or nights for me.” Levi merely nodded slightly in reply, before Eren sighed exasperatedly.

“What’s wrong now brat?” he questioned with a slight smirk in his voice.

“It’s unfair! You know so much about me, and yet all I know is that you drink coffee at 5.30 and 8.30am most mornings. I don’t even know your name!” he exclaimed as he dramatically draped himself over the counter. Levi couldn’t stop himself from smirking at the over the top display.

“Well it’s more than most people know, if you want to, then the next time you work the morning shift you can put the coffee on my fucking bill then. And since you asked so nicely shitty brat, the name’s Levi.”  He said, holding back a slight smile as Eren’s face lit up when he said his name. That was certainly a reaction he’d never had before. People were normally more scared when they learned his name but he hadn’t told the kid his full name, so he guessed ignorance truly was bliss.

It wasn’t too much longer before Levi bid his goodbyes and began his run back home. And if he smiled at the thought of the look on Eren’s face then who was to know.

* * *

 

It was only two days later when Levi next saw the boy. He had only been to the 104th once during the night shifts and it hadn’t been Eren behind the counter. Leaning back in the leather seats of his chauffeured car as he was driven to work, he tried to stave off sleep as his heavy eyelids fluttered towards shutting. The latest nightmare had shaken him so much he hadn’t dared to sleep last night. Instead he had worked out and when he became exhausted he brewed practically a vat of coffee and began planning for the meeting that was coming today.

Luckily before he succumbed to sleep the car pulled over in front of the coffee shop. Stepping out quickly he swept into the shop. There were only three people between him and the counter, but he was slightly earlier than usual today so it shouldn’t hold him up too much. Pulling out his phone he began replying to some of his emails. At the sound of a familiar laugh, he glanced up and took a quick double take at the sight of a familiar mess of chocolate brown hair that he could see behind the counter. His attention was caught when he heard Eren’s long faced companion asking him the question that was running through Levi’s head. “So why did you swap shifts with Marco today anyway?”

“I’ve explained this already Jean,” he said, sounding exasperated, “I said I’d go to some stupid meeting with my dad today and so I can’t do my afternoon shift,” he sounded irritated at the idea, but had continued working as he spoke and now Levi was at the front of the line. Levi’s face remained stoic even as Eren’s face lit up with a grin. There was a slight flash of concern in his eyes as he noticed the heavy dark smudges under Levi’s eyes and his face that Levi knew was growing paler and gaunter with every restless night. But it was quickly masked as his grin grew.

“Hey Levi! The usual? And then I can finally add on that coffee from the other day,” he asked. Levi merely nodded in reply, too tired to be polite, and pulled out his wallet. As soon as the hot drink was handed to him, he went to leave before pausing as a thought struck him. Over his shoulder he called back “Thanks Eren” and couldn’t help the small smile as Eren’s grin somehow widened even further and the other boy’s jaw dropped. And then he was out the door and stepping back into the waiting car.

Behind the counter Jean smacked Eren’s arm harshly with the back of his hand. “Hey! What the fuck was that for horse face?” he exclaimed, rubbing at his arm and glaring balefully at him. Jean just rolled his eyes at the look being sent his way.

“How the hell do you know his name? And how have you even met him, I’ve never seen him at any other time of day? And he said thank you to you! He never says anything other than to order,” he kept adding more and more questions until Eren rolled his eyes and answered.

“He told me his name the other day, and he comes in several times a week when I’m on my night shifts. We chat occasionally, he was the one who told me about the gang territory,”

“Woah woah,” He cried holding his hands up to pause Eren, “He’s the one who told you about the Mafia groups? Are you trying to tell me that Richy McBitchface is part of the Mafia? Hah what a load of bullshit!” he laughed.

“Richy McBitchface? That’s a dreadful nickname Seabiscuit, even for you. I mean Richy, doesn’t even make sense?” Jean looked incredulous again at Eren’s words.

“And now you’re telling me you haven’t even noticed that he’s totally loaded? Oh come on Eren, are you blind or something. The bloke turns up every morning in some fancy chauffeured car, and not to mention he has a black card. Only like the mega rich have that shit.” Eren just shrugged his shoulders, he’d never noticed and Levi always walked to the shop at night he thought. Still looking shocked, Jean just shook his head and turned away from his apparently oblivious friend.

* * *

 

The day was dragging excruciatingly slowly at Recon. Levi’s only scheduled meeting for that day was at 2pm with the Shiganshina mob leader, and the rest of it was purely going to be paperwork for him. The reports from both sides of Recon were piled high on his desk and his eyelids were drooping lower and lower. The blinds were drawn, covering the wall of windows, due to a slight headache he’d had earlier in the day, but now he rose from his seat and raised all the blinds – letting the sunlight pour in; he hoped this would be enough to prevent him from slipping into the dreaded embrace of sleep.

Eventually at 1.45 he buzzed through to Nanaba’s desk “Nanaba, would you please head down to the reception, they should be here soon.” He paused for a second before adding with a sigh, “And on your way down can you stop in at lab 5 and ask Doctor Zoe for a code 48. They will give you all the necessary instructions. That will be all.” The usual reply of “Certainly sir” rang through immediately and he watched as his assistant got up and briskly left her office. He sighed deeply. There was a sense of shame deep inside at having to ask for Hanji’s help, that usually signified that something had gone seriously out of hand. Code 48 was a simple one, meant as a pick-me-up for when one of their group had been awake for too long, it consisted of a small vial of some unidentifiable yet very strong mix of alcohol, that when mixed into a black coffee had the same effect on Levi’s exhausted state as a shot of adrenaline.

Glancing at the clock he realised he now only had just over five minutes before Nanaba would return, so he set to work adjusting the work that was scattered across his desk. Any sensitive material he placed inside one of the locked drawers, while the rest was sorted and stacked into incredibly neat piles. Once he had finished, Levi got up from his seat and turned to face the window; naturally standing at ease, as though he had only left the military yesterday. Mere seconds later he heard the elevator chime as the doors slid open. The office door opened, “Sir, Mr Jaeger is here.” Nanaba said as she led in his guests. He turned to greet them. Two men stood in front of his desk. The first was a tall imposing man with long hair wearing a very sharp suit. But Levi’s eyes were immediately drawn to the slightly shorter young man standing to his right. His messy hair had been smoothed back slightly, and he was wearing a shirt and smart slacks, but it was unmistakably Eren. For some reason however, his eyes were both a dull green instead of their usual incredible turquoise and gold; he could only assume that for some reason the boy was wearing colour contacts. His eyes widened slightly in surprise at seeing him there. Eren’s shock and a slight glimmer of confusion were displayed openly on his face. The older man reached out his hand towards Levi to shake as he spoke:

“Mr Ackerman, a pleasure to meet you. I’m Grisha Jaeger and this is my son, Eren.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we have another chapter! Ever so slightly longer this time as well. I actually managed to finish this one only a day or two after I posted the previous one but I didn't end up posting it because my sister got a cat! And because I've been far too busy playing with the little fluff ball I never got round to posting this chapter. But yeah, here it is, things are kinda starting to kick off from now, might actually get some plot coming soon. I do have the next few chapters heavily planned out however I won't be able to write chapter 7 until I'm back at home because I didn't think I'd get this far while up here and so left my reference notes at home. Oops. I hope you guys are still enjoying it. And as usual thank you so much to anyone who's left kudos!  
> U x


	6. Chapter 6

Dressed all in black, except for the deep red scarf wrapped round her neck, she leaned back elegantly in the leather chair. Her clasped hands rested on her crossed legs, the pointed red nails looking dangerously sharp with the way the golden light of early evening fell across them. Piercing stormy eyes stared coldly at the only other person in the room. She had been summoned here to see him, and yet even though she’d arrived perfectly punctually, she had then been forced to wait over an hour before finally being led to the office on the very top floor. So understandably she was not feeling at all accommodating – even if the man was presumably her boss. She cleared her throat politely and the man finally put aside the papers he had in his hands and removed his glasses.

“You must be Mikasa Ackerman,” he said finally looking her straight in the eye. Her look hardened and deep down she was mildly impressed that the man didn’t even blink where many men would have flinched or looked away.

Not even bothering to keep back the sarcasm in her voice, she said “Well considering you did ask me to come for this meeting, and I’m the only person other than you in this room that’s a rather bold assumption Sir.” He merely raised a thin eyebrow at her reply.

“How long have you been part of the Family Miss Ackerman?”

“Just over five years,” came the clipped reply. He nodded and picked a manila folder from one of the desk drawers, glancing at the contents briefly. “May I ask what this is about?” she asked.

“Consider it an evaluation of sorts Miss Ackerman.” He looked her over quickly, before turning his eyes back to the file in his hands. He then began asking her to confirm the fine details regarding her time working for them.

She didn’t need to be reminded of the events of the past five years. Mikasa remembered them perfectly. She’d joined when she was 17 and for the first year or so her jobs had mostly been moving packages for the family, usually just drugs that needed to be supplied to vendors, these were the jobs given to the lowest tier of members. Then one day not long after her 18th birthday, one of her superiors asked her if she had any sort of proficiency with weapons of any kind. Since she was young she had been training in mixed martial arts, and upon saying this she soon found herself being taught how to wield a gun. Then she started being taken along with the debt collectors and the like. By the age of twenty, she was skilled in methods of getting things out of people. Eventually her skill was noticed, and for the last two years she had maintained a job as one of the main enforcers. Within the family this was considered a more mid-tiered job, but Mikasa found it payed decently well and somewhere deep down she got a small sick level of satisfaction from it. It also provided an easy cover for her to give to her adopted brother as to where she was getting her money from. She did her work in the back room of one of the many bars that was owned by the family, half the time she did the messy work for the family and the rest of the time at work she was occupied as a bartender. Often she had felt guilty for hiding what she really did from her brother, Eren, as she knew perfectly well how much he hated the families. But she knew that she was just doing was her best option for now. Mikasa knew she was putting off talking to him about her job, but even though she didn’t give a shit what anybody else thought about her, she really didn’t want Eren to look at her any differently. Although perhaps it was already too late for that.

Eventually he had worked his way through her career, and he closed the folder before looking at her once more. “Now Miss Ackerman, it also says here that you were approached when you were a few months off turning 17 and asked to join the family,” Mikasa nodded to confirm this, “Now, you may not be aware but normally we don’t just ask people to join us like that. Or at least simply not that politely. However, I’m sure you know that this is the Ackerman family, and I am Levi Ackerman, the head of the family. And of course, your very own name is Ackerman. Surely you at least once thought that the repetition of that name couldn’t just be some coincidence.” Mikasa had no reply for that. She had wondered once or twice, but always just brushed it off. Levi closed his eyes slightly and rubbed at the bridge of his nose with two fingers and sighed slightly. “Mikasa, I’m telling you all this for a reason. Now that I am the head of the family, and also Recon, it would appear that you…” he paused as if searching for the right words, “you, are now the heir.” He finished, gesturing lamely with one hand. Mikasa sat in a silence of mild shock and confusion for a moment before laughing slightly.

“You’ve got to be kidding. Right? I mean how in hell can I be your heir, there must be someone else?” she said with another slight derisive laugh. Again Levi sighed.

“I don’t _kid_ , Miss Ackerman.” He said sharply before relaxing somewhat, “But it is true. I am only the head because Kenny, my uncle and the previous head, had no children of his own. Meanwhile, I, myself, am a single man in my thirties with no prospects of having children anytime soon.” He snorted slightly at that, which she didn’t understand. “You on the other hand are my second cousin, and closest living relative. Therefore, since I will never be having children of my own, you are the only person who can be my heir. And rather helpfully Kenny, in his infinite and bastardous wisdom, had already had you introduced to this world. Clearly that man knew me better than I ever gave him credit for…” the last sentence had trailed off and was slightly muttered to himself but Mikasa still caught it. He quickly snapped back however and looked her in the eyes with an intense stare as he spoke again. “So, would you be prepared to continue with what is, essentially, your heritage?”

“What would being your heir entail, may I ask?” she asked carefully.

“You’ll need to learn about how things work at the top tier of things. How it’s a run and such. I’m sure with your experience you know how it works in all of the lower levels. After all the ruler of a kingdom needs to understand the poor and homeless who live in the shit filled streets just as much as he understands the rich in their golden palaces. Once you get all of that crap you can start doing some work directly for me. For that however, only I can teach you the things you’ll need. You’ll be doing the jobs for me which I used to do for Kenny. After all there are some jobs that can only be trusted with members of one’s true family.”

Now in regard to your current job, if you really wish to continue doing that, then you are perfectly welcome to continue there. But if ever you wish to give it up just say the word. However, saying that, your current place does give you a very easy and well-established cover, and I know all too well how important keeping hidden this part of your life can be to some people in this business.” He finished, and there was a glint in his eye that Mikasa couldn’t quite identify, although there was something similar to guilt almost hidden deep in there somewhere. She nodded as she made her decision.

“Okay, I’ll do it. But you must allow me to leave if I ever think it is too much.” Although deep down she knew she wouldn’t quit. Levi’s ever stoic faced looked almost relieved as he agreed to her terms.

* * *

 

_“Mr Ackerman, a pleasure to meet you. I’m Grisha Jaeger and this is my son, Eren.”_

Levi reached out and shook Grisha’s hand, before shaking Eren’s as well.

“The pleasure is all mine Mr Jaeger, as I’m sure you already know I am Levi Ackerman. And may I welcome you to Recon.” He said. Eren’s look of shock dropped from his face as he took his seat and was quickly replaced with one of anger as he dropped into the leather chair as the two other men also sat down. He lounged in the chair and stared around the room purposefully, Levi noticed, never once glancing in his direction. Once he was seated, Levi reached into his top drawer and took out a small bottle of hand sanitizer, discreetly cleaning his hands out of the view of his guests. Signalling to Nanaba with a wave of his hand he turned once more to the other men, “Can I get you anything to drink?” in reply while Grisha politely requested a coffee, Eren merely shook his head sullenly. With a nod from Levi, Nanaba left the office, shutting the door behind her.

The meeting quickly began as the two older men talked through all of the matters that were currently relevant. Levi would subtly glance over at Eren periodically, but the boy was always resolutely staring off around the office. Something deep in Levi’s chest twinged uncomfortably at not being able to look straight into his gorgeous, mismatched eyes. Around fifteen minutes into the meeting, he noticed Nanaba returning with a tray containing their drinks. When she paused at her desk for a moment, he smiled internally, mentally praising her for remembering to stop at the lab earlier. When she came back and handed them their drinks, he couldn’t help but notice Eren giving her an odd look. He pulled his drink towards him, but still talking, didn’t yet bring it to his lips. Not long after that, they somehow managed to get onto the topic of their heirs.

“And what of the future of the Jaegers, may I ask? Have you named someone as your heir?” He asked politely.

“An excellent point sir, Eren here is my only biological child and so my sole heir since his birth. I have an absolute faith in him to keep the Jaeger family going strong even once I am no longer able to.” Grisha replied, looking at the boy with a look of pride. Eren had straightened up from his slouched position since the topic was broached, but wasn’t meeting his father’s eye, rather glaring defiantly at the edge of Levi’s desk. Levi carefully observed the looks on the men’s faces. He immediately recognised the fraudulent look on Grisha’s face, and he had to hold back a sneer as he realised this man held no ounce of pride in his son. So instead he continued as if nothing had happened.

“From what I have seen, Eren seems a worthy candidate. You said however that he is your only _biological_ child?” Levi questioned, redirecting the conversation.

“Ah yes, when Eren was a young child, my dearest wife adopted a young girl. She was the daughter of one of Carla’s close friends who died in a tragic accident.” Grisha nodded mournfully. Levi let out a slight smile, he knew exactly who the girl was, and could almost laugh at the irony, but he smothered it for now and merely wondered if Grisha knew of the allegiances of his adopted daughter. “And what of yourself? Is there a direct Ackerman heir?”  

“Why yes, I just named my own heir a couple of weeks ago. She is a cousin of mine, that my uncle and predecessor began introducing to this life not long after I went away a few years ago. She is incredibly capable, and I believe once she has been completely prepared for this role, no one will surpass her ability. Sadly, I have no children of my own to make my heirs, and there are no children in my future. So, for now, I am just a very eligible bachelor.” At this he glanced once more at Eren and was pleased to see the boy staring at him with wide eyes and an unreadable look on his face. He smirked at him slightly, and it only intensified when he saw a hint of pink dusting Eren’s cheekbones.

“It is always sad to hear when a man can’t leave a living legacy, however your legacy shall without a doubt live on in the continued success of the Ackerman family and of course, Recon. However this woman you speak of, your cousin, sounds like the perfect successor.” Grisha replied with a nod as he took a sip from his coffee.

“Indeed” he replied lifting his own cup of tea to his lips.

“Wait! Levi, don’t drink it!” He heard Eren cry, before a hand grabbed his wrist. He couldn’t help his violent flinch at the touch, and the cup jerked away from his mouth, the tea lapping up the sides to scald the very tips of his fingers in the way he always held his drinks.

“ _What do you think you’re playing at_.” Grisha hissed his face reddening with barely concealed anger, and Eren jolted back to his seat as if burned.

“I saw his assistant pour something into his teacup earlier from a small vial,” Eren quickly replied; the words rushing from his mouth in his hurry to explain. Before the boy’s father could get another word in Levi spoke.

“Thank you Eren, that was very wise of you. However Nanaba is no more trying to poison me than you are, that was merely a medicine that I often forget to take,” Grisha tried to speak again, but Levi continued before he could continue to reprimand his son, “And Grisha, you should be proud of your son and his observational skills there, if I had been in real danger there your son would have just have saved my life. For that you have earned my respect, and I thank you Eren.” He picked up the cup again, and raised it toward Eren in a mock toast, before taking a deep sip. Levi had to hold back a sigh of content as he felt the added liquid reawakening his tired body. Hanji’s code 48 was as affective as ever, he would make sure not to mention it, as the shitty doctor didn’t need any more of an ego boost. He then quickly got the meeting back on track in his rejuvenated state.

Just over an hour later, the meeting was drawing to a close. The formal goodbyes were said, hands were shaken once again (much to Levi’s disgust), and he rose from his desk and opened the office door, leading the Jaegers to a waiting Nanaba. And as they began walking away Eren glanced back and Levi couldn’t stop himself from flashing him a small smile, which managed to bring the most incredible grin to Eren’s face. As they disappeared behind elevator doors, Levi sank back into his office chair, and closed his eyes as a wave of exhaustion washed over him. A smile crept onto his face momentarily at the image of smiling golden and teal eyes was imprinted on the insides of his closed eyelids.

* * *

 

Too soon it was the last Friday of the month. And Levi found himself once again sitting at the head of a table full of the higher members of the family. He found himself endeavouring to keep from slouching in his seat. His eyelids were heavy and he struggled to keep them open. He felt as though he hadn’t slept in decades. For the past few weeks he had only been getting one or two hours a night as his nightmares increased in frequency to the point where they occurred most nights. Even when the vivid images didn’t pervade his sleeping moments, he still struggled to sleep as the fear of the memories kept his mind awake. So instead he would go for runs or workout along with drinking gallons of dark bitter coffee. He would try and stay at work for as long as it was possible, turning up before most people in the mornings and leaving each evening well after darkness had fallen. Each action had its visible effect on him however. His skin had paled even further with the lack of sleep and this further contrasted with the dark marks lying heavily under his eyes. The increase in his military level exercise routine had left Levi looking more built than ever, but the coffee had left the worst mark of all. The over use of the caffeine to stimulate his exhausted body had nulled the effects of it. Now the beverage had become worse than useless, and his body was beginning to crash down.

Even worse, Levi was convinced the sleeping habits – or rather, the lack of them – were beginning to crack his mind. Alone in his apartment he continued to see the ghosts of his past reflected in the mirrors, always watching him with a deathly pallor that rivalled his own. In a fit of anger at this weakness he had ended up shattering the large mirror in his bathroom. And even though the broken glass had been meticulously cleaned up and removed, the jagged shards that still clung to the edge of the frame often still showed glimpses. Every other mirror in the apartment had been covered. Levi refused to admit that perhaps something was wrong, and just continued to blame it all on his current sleeping problem. In his stubbornness he refused to even refer to it internally as insomnia, he didn’t want to acknowledge it in any way.

Around him the meeting continued on, they were currently discussing some of the smaller things that didn’t require too much input from him and so his mind continued to drift. The main topic of the meeting had been his meeting with the Jaegers and he had obviously been heavily a part of the discussion at that point. But once it had moved on he had drifted away while trying to at least look as though he was being attentive. He finally came to a decision and pulled his phone out of the pocket of his suit trousers. He carefully concealed it under the table as he pulled up his messages. Fumbling slightly he clicked on one of the contacts, attempting to type out a message. His tired eyes made the screen into a blur of coloured light. After fumbling for a good minute or two, he quickly grew infuriated. Pulling the phone up above the table, he clicked on a different contact and brought the phone up to his ear. The second the phone was picked up on the other end he spoke before the other person even had a chance to speak. His irritation was clear in his voice.

“Get me a Code 48. And if you can’t bring it to me now leave it on my desk.” At the interruption all heads in the rom turned towards Levi. Most leaned forward subtly in an attempt to catch what the person he was talking to was saying. This interruption was most unusual from a man who normally kept his activities under heavy wraps, and the very private sounding code was an intriguing development.

“ _But Levi, sir, surely that can’t be healthy. You’ve called for code 48 several times in the past few weeks-”_ a female voice said on the other end before being cut off by Levi snapping at her again

“It’s not your job to tell me whether I can or can’t do something Nanaba. So fucking listen when I say, if that’s not on my desk when I get back from this meeting then you can pack up your shit.” With those harsh words he hung up and shoved his phone back into his pocket. He motioned for the meeting to continue and they quickly returned to the discussion. As Levi looked around those sitting at the conference table he made eye contact with Mike who was sitting closer to the other end. Mike rolled his eyes at Levi, clearly understanding the code, but there was still a look of concern in his eyes.

Family meetings could last anywhere from 3 hours, and at this point they’d been going for just over an hour. Levi attempted to remain invested in what was being said, but as the time stretched towards two hours his mind began to wander once more. Elbows resting on the edge of the table, his chin rested on his intertwined fingers, weighted eyelids droop and shut. The world darkened as the edges of sleep caressed his tired mind. His mind was blissfully blank, and the darkness that enveloped him he welcomed. His whole body was relaxing as his usually hectic thoughts calmed. He sensed someone walking behind him. Even though his mind jumped at the movement behind him, and the threat from this unknown factor, he couldn’t find it in him to force open his tired eyes.

A cold hand wrapped round his wrist and he flinched violently. But before he could move further there was a brush of cold lips against his ear and a sweet voice whispered “Levi”. His eyes snapped open and he jerked from his chair. The force of the action sent the chair spinning sideways until it collided with a wall with a crash. There she stood, slowly backing away from him, arms held down at her sides with her palms turned towards Levi. Her name slipped from his lips unbidden, a ragged whisper, as he stumbled back, his lower back colliding with the edge of the conference table.

 

After Levi’s unexpected outburst with the phone call, the other members continued with the meeting as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened, although occasionally one or two would cast a furtive glance in his direction. Mike, however, found his major focus had now shifted from the rambling arguments occurring at the table, to his mysterious friend at the other end of the room. Keeping one ear on those around him, he ensured to continue contributing, even as he watched Levi slumping in his chair. From his outward appearance alone it was blindingly obvious that the man wasn’t getting enough sleep by far, and so when his eyelids fluttered shut Mike prayed that no one would draw attention to this. He tried to focus back on the meeting now that he didn’t think Levi would be doing much more for the remainder of the time, but there was something niggling at the back of his mind that kept drawing his gaze back to the sleeping man frequently. For Levi to allow this to happen he must have been truly exhausted. The Levi Mike knew would never let anything affect his ability to do his job, whatever that was, so there must be something truly out of place that was keeping him from sleeping. But what was it? He looked so peaceful. What could it possibly be?

It was on this train of thought that he glanced up again just in time to watch Levi flinch forcibly. Was this what was keeping him awake? His thoughts were cut off as Levi shot up and out of his seat as though he had been burned. The meeting came to a startled halt as everyone’s heads whipped in the direction of the disturbance as the loud crash of the spinning chair hitting the wall cut off whoever had been speaking. The room fell deadly silent and all that could be heard was Levi’s heavy, shaking breaths. Mike stood, about to take a step forward when Levi spoke.

It was a single word, but it held such a strong yet unreadable emotion to it, that none of those present had ever heard even close to in Levi’s voice. It was so quiet if he had breathed too loud he would have missed it, but it came out hoarse, as though it physically pained the man to say it.

“Petra”

Mike took another step forward until he could see Levi’s face. It was as cold and emotionless as usual, but his eyes were wide and unblinking. A stormy troubling mixture of horror, fear, confusion and pain. And Mike, for all his life experience, and everything he’d ever seen of the man in front of him, was lost as to what to do.

They were snapped from their collective trance, as Levi raised his arm, as though trying to get something, fingers curling as if trying to grab onto something or someone that only he could see. And then he was snatching his arm back, and letting out a short, bloodcurdling scream, that cut right through all of them. He cowered clutching at the table, mumbling incoherently, before he whimpered, not unlike a wounded animal. And then Mike had made his decision, he turned to the shocked men sitting frozen in their seats and snapped out an order, harsh tone and words cutting through the room and making people jump to his bidding, but Levi didn’t react at all. It was as though he hadn’t heard at all.

“Someone go call for Dr Hange Zoe immediately and tell her it’s fucking urgent.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently I can't stop myself from ending almost every chapter on a cliffhanger, oops. I promise there won't be one in chapter 7... hopefully. Anyway, sorry this chapter took so long to come out, I've had all but like the last two paragraphs written up for well over a week, but just couldn't seem to find the right words. But, I've finally finished it so here you go, and I hope you guys like it. I actually kinda enjoyed writing that Mikasa bit, so there might be some more of that in the future. Anywho, hope you enjoy the chapter, thank you to everyone who's left kudos and bookmarked. I'll hopefully start the next chapter tomorrow.  
> U x


	7. Chapter 7

Hanji Zoe span round in their desk chair, snapping a pair of goggles down over their eyes as they leaned over a petri dish. There was a manic gleam in their eyes, and they suddenly jumped up from their chair, punching the air and whooping in celebration. In their energetic jumping around, their already well stained labcoat caught the petri dish, pulling it down onto the ground in a crash of breaking glass and an odd thin green liquid splashed across the floor. Squealing in dismay at the accident, they raced over to a small bookshelf in the corner, so laden down with papers, notebooks and scientific journals that it looked close to collapse. Rifling through it all they searched for a reasonably empty notebook, discarding the useless papers over their shoulder. Where one notebook came in contact with the spilt liquid, the corners began to smoke before slowly starting to disintegrate.

The automatic doors to the lab slid open smoothly and Moblit, their hapless assistant, sighed at the mess in front of him before rushing to clean up the scattered notebooks. Just as he salvaged all of the papers, his boss whipped around with a triumphant exclamation, holding aloft a slightly rumpled pad of paper.

“Moblit! Perfect timing! Have you got a pen on you? I think I’ve found what I’ve been hoping for, but I need to make some notes, because there was a little bit of an accident. And there’s really no point in redoing such an arduous process when I’ve already seen all I need for now. So I simply must note it down!” They had a rather unfortunate habit for continuing for hours once they got started on about their research, so one the doctor paused for a second, Moblit interrupted quickly.

“Hanji, there’s an urgent call from upstairs that you m-” before he could even finish his sentence, they cut him off.

“It’s not Lee again is it? I’ve already seen his assistant in the last couple of hours. And while I would love to study the effects this constant use would have on a healthy male subject, it really can’t be very good for him. Next time I see him, I should really do some tests. Blood pressure obviously, but a neurological scan would be even more useful if perhaps it could show me some psychological effects…” they trailed off, clearly deep in their thoughts. Moblit coughed loudly to pull their attention once more.

“This sounds like it’s slightly more important. You’ve been summoned to Floor 42, Conference Room D. The caller said it’s essential that you drop everything and get straight there without hesitation.” Hanji listened intently as he spoke. Something clearly dawned upon them as they muttered unintelligibly under their breath before snatching a bag from beside their desk and sprinting from the room.

The doctor sprinted through the hallways, with people moving swiftly out of their way. Hanji had gained a reputation within the Recon building of being a bit of a lunatic at the best of times, and so people had quickly learned to move out of the way when the whirlwind that was Hanji left the labs. Hanji was finding this incredibly useful as they ran. They knew that the quickest way to get up to the conference room was via the direct elevator, which rather unfortunately was on the other side of the building to the labs where Hanji resided. Thankfully once they reached the elevator it was empty and so using their sneaky override code, which luckily nobody had yet discovered in their possession, they took the elevator straight to the 42nd floor without stopping once.

Leaping from the elevator once it had stopped, they quickly got their bearings before rushing off once more. They had known immediately upon hearing Moblit say where the call had come from who the summons had come from. Conference Room D was only used for the monthly family meetings, and so if something had gone wrong enough there for them to be called, then it had to be truly urgent. Moblit hadn’t told them who the caller had been either, which cast further worry in their mind, surely if it had been Mike or Levi he would have said?

Their spinning thoughts ground to a halt as they reached the room they were looking for. Yanking open the door, they almost collided with Nile Dok, who had a rather irritated, albeit slightly shocked look on his face accompanied by a rather strong bruise swelling on his jaw. They brushed past him, ignoring his noise of indignation, and headed to Mike who was frantically beckoning them over to him.

“Mornin’ Mikey. What’s wrong? I came as quickly as I could.” But before he could answer them, they glanced past him to the shaking form of Levi who was still crouched against the table. They gasped. “Oh my Christ, Lee!” they started to rush over to him, but was stopped by Mike’s solid arm.

“Is this your fault?” he asked accusingly. Hanji widened their eyes in an almost comical look of affront.

“How on earth could you believe I would do this to my poor shortstack?!” they exclaimed, “Plus, I promised him years ago that I’d stop experimenting on him. And I don’t break promises like that with him anymore.” They pulled a face as they said it, remembering Levi’s ire on one such occasion. But Mike didn’t release them from his grip, even with their reassurances. Instead he leaned closer, whispering harshly “I know you’ve been sending him those god-awful concoctions. Why would you keep sending it if you’d seen the condition he’s in? He’s clearly utterly exhausted. The man I knew never would have let himself fall asleep during a meeting, and that’s what led to this whole situation.” Hanji paused at his words, thinking them through at lightning speed.

“Now look here you, that has nothing to do with this. And anyway I trusted Levi to know when to stop. Hang on… did you say that he fell asleep and then this happened?”

“Yeah that’s what I said.”

“How long has it been since he came back?” they asked, the other people in the room were paying rapt attention to the conversation.

“About a year and a half I reckon, is that what’s happening?” Mike replied, drawing confused looks from the family members. Hanji merely hummed in reply. Muttering under their breath as they moved closer to Levi. “Be careful, he was quite violent earlier” the Nile’s nasal voice called out to them as they crouched down. Hanji nodded and was careful not to touch him as they got as close as possible. His lips moved and she strained to hear his words.

“…didn’t mean  for you to die… my fault… a murderer.” His whisper was hoarse, and even though they only caught a few words, they immediately connected the dots. They smiled grimly.

“Hey Levi, that ankle looks real bad, are you gonna let us help you?” he shook his head at her words. Muttering a bitter “M fine” he slung out an arm, and gripping onto the edge of the conference table, he hoisted himself up onto his feet, never taking his eyes off the empty air a metre in front of him. Hanji smiled to themselves, but swiftly covered it as they gently laid a hand on his upper arm. Levi’s eyes snapped to meet theirs and now there was something different in them as he shook her hand off and stormed from the room, snarling at those who weren’t fast enough getting out of his way. Once the door slammed behind his fast retreating figure, it was as though the room let out a collective sigh of releasing tension. But it was only a mere second before Hanji was snatching their bag from a silent Mike, they sprinted from the room, heading in the opposite direction.

They raced through the hallways, rummaging through their pockets with one free hand as they went. Finally as they reached an elevator in the back of the building, they whipped out a key, slotting it into the key hole next to the call button. The doors slid open a few seconds later, and they quickly leapt in. Once more shoving the key into another keyhole, the doors immediately closed and the elevator jerked to life. The elevator was less ornate and well kept than the main elevators in the office building, mainly used by the maintenance workers and cleaners. But it didn’t have a constant heavy traffic of people running through it, and so, ever since Hanji had managed to get their hands on the master key, it was their first option every time. Minutes later, the doors were sliding open once more, and they were sprinting across the top floor office space, reaching the other elevator doors mere seconds after Levi had strode out. They called his name but he merely quickened his pace as he headed to his office. Just as he tried to slam the door in their face, they caught it and snuck in behind him, carefully closing the door. Taking a seat opposite him, Hanji stared straight at him, unblinking, keeping her face carefully blank.

“Well? Spit it out then.” He snapped.

“We really need to talk about what just happened Levi,” they finally said softly, and he rolled his eyes so hard in response it almost looked painful.

“I’m completely fine four eyes,” he said, his tone still harsh, but not as much as before.

“I think we have plenty of evidence to the contrary, you will find.” He turned away at their words, clenched fists hanging at his sides. They couldn’t see his face, but his tense body language was very telling. “Has this happened before Levi?” he still didn’t reply, and carried on staring out of the window. “Look, maybe you should take the rest of the day off. You’re probably just working yourself too hard. And nobody will mind as you’re always in anyway. Everybody needs a break at some point Levi, and I’m saying this as a doctor and a friend. Go home.” He nodded absently, still not looking at them.

Walking around the office he gathered his things and headed for the door, as he passed Nanaba’s desk he stopped. “Nanaba, I’m leaving early today, call my driver and tell him to get here now. Forward all the emails to me as usual along with scans of any urgent paperwork. I’ll complete everything else tomorrow.” She nodded swiftly and picked up the phone as he walked away. By the time the elevator doors had shut she had already got through to the driver and was giving him swift instructions. Hanji perched on the corner of Nanaba’s desk and sighed heavily. Once the phone call was over, Nanaba turned to them.

“Is something wrong Doctor Zoe?”

“Yes, I’m afraid. I don’t know what’s wrong with him Nana, it’s probably just exhaustion, or some form of sleepwalking… I’m not sure though…” they trailed off and sighed deeply before snapping back to their normal levels of energy, “Anyway! I have work to be getting back to. See you later Nanaba!” they exclaimed, hopping off the desk and practically skipping towards the elevators.

* * *

By the time the car had stopped outside Levi’s apartment, he was exhausted. As he stepped out onto the pavement, a thought struck him and he turned back to his driver who had been holding the door open for him. “Thank you for picking me up on such short notice, I will not be needing you again either today or tomorrow.” The reply was a swift “Of course sir” and then the car was pulling away and Levi was stepping into the lobby of the apartment building. Swiftly making his way into the elevator, he pressed the button for the top floor. Once the doors were closed he lent heavily against the wall. He shut his eyes and sighed heavily. As much as he hated to admit it, Hanji had been right. He was in desperate need of a decent night’s sleep. There was no way he could afford to have a repeat of that meeting. Whatever was happening to him was obviously getting worse. Hopefully he could improve it by trying to sleep at night, he had come up with some ideas to force sleep during the drive back, but for now it was still early afternoon and he had some time to kill.

Getting out of the elevator and into his apartment, he was suddenly plunged into near darkness. Realising that he must have forgotten to open the curtains that morning, he crossed the lounge and pulled open the curtains, the bright sunlight spilling into the room from the large windows and reflecting off the glass coffee table to leave a bright rainbow of light across the opposite wall. Heading into the master bedroom, he changed out of his expensive suit and threw on a pair of black jeans and a casual shirt. Once he had sat down on the large grey couch and checked his emails he realised that somehow his exhaustion had slipped away. Rising once more he grabbed a leather jacket and a set of keys before returning to the elevator. Instead of getting off at the ground floor, he instead headed down to the basement.

As the doors slid open, he was struck with a cold rush of air. Walking towards the section of the parking garage that contained his vehicles, he couldn’t help the smile that slipped onto his lips at the sight of his cars. Struck with the realisation that he hadn’t driven himself anywhere since he started working at Recon, he pulled open the door to a sleek black Bugatti. He felt himself instantly relax as he slipped into the cool interior.

Pulling out of the parking garage he sped onto the streets, rediscovering that old thrill as he revved the engine. A smirk settling on his face as he sped through the shining city.

-

An hour later, he found himself pulling in at the usual coffee shop on Maria Street. He hadn’t realised this was where he was heading but slowed down to pull into a parking spot near the building anyway. Just as he opened the door to the shop he felt a buzz in his pocket, pulling out his phone he noticed several new messages

**New Message**

_Shitty Glasses (2.32) – I’m expecting you to not come in tomorrow_

_Shitty Glasses (2.35) – You need sleep_

_Shitty Glasses (2.36) – I’m expecting you to sleep all day._

_Shitty Glasses (3.13) – And stop drinking coffee! There’s no way that’s helping!_

He scoffed under his breath. Was the freak psychic now or something? Ignoring the texts, he put his phone back in his pocket and joined the short queue. There were only two servers behind the counter, one was a short blond girl who was smiling sweetly. The other was the tall kid with the stupid hair who was occasionally there in the mornings when Levi stopped in. In fact the last time he’d seen him was the other morning when Eren had been here as well. Just as Levi realised he hadn’t seen the brunet since that meeting, the door slammed open once more.

“Sorry I’m late,” a familiar voice called, “Some rich twat stole my parking space! With a Bugatti of all things!” as Levi glanced to the source of the voice, Eren walked straight past him, heading into a backroom. He returned, slinging on an apron, just as Levi reached the front counter.

“Hi, how can I help?” He asked not looking up at Levi as he logged into the till.

“I believe I may just be the ‘rich twat’ that stole your parking space I’m afraid.” He said with a smirk. Eren’s head snapped up, and bright eyes met his, face morphing into a look of shock and surprise.

“Le – Mr Ackerman!” he exclaimed. For some reason, the horseface boy snapped round to stare at Levi with a rather odd look at Eren’s words.

“Hello to you too, Mr Jaeger,” he replied smoothly. Now the other server was arching a brow, curiosity and mild confusion written plainly on his face. But Levi ignored him in favour of continuing speaking to Eren, “You may still call me Levi, you know,” at this Eren gave him a blinding smile. Levi smothered a smirk, along with the rising wayward thoughts that whispered of how his mood had changed since Eren had arrived.

“So then, Levi,” the way Eren stressed his first name sounded ridiculously pleasing to Levi’s ears, “Why are you not at work today, pulling a sick day? From my experience you don’t appear to exist outside of work unless it’s 4 or 8am,” Eren laughed slightly at the thought.

“In fact you’re almost right, except I have a ‘doctors note’ so I won’t get in trouble for my apparent truancy. Speaking of doctors though, I’ve been informed that I must cut back on my coffee intake, so it’ll just be a black tea for me today.” Adding on the last part as he watched Eren prepare to make his usual. Glancing around at the usual calming atmosphere of the shop, he decided he could try and get some work done while he was here.

“Oi kid,” he called attracting Eren’s attention, “I just need to go grab something from my car. I’ll be back in a second.” Eren nodded in reply. As Levi got up and left he couldn’t help but notice that as soon as he was moving further away, the other boy working there quickly moved over to talk to Eren, what looked like a question on the tip of his tongue. Within a few brief seconds, Levi had reached his car, and reaching into the passenger seat, he pulled out his laptop bag, that he had (rather usefully) had the foresight to bring with him.

Returning to the warm interior of the shop, he placed his bag down on the table of the cleanest of the booths. Back at the counter Eren had just finished making his tea, Levi thanked him for it and returned to his booth. Pulling open his laptop, he quickly noted that with his assistant’s usual efficiency, he already had several important emails waiting for him. Skipping over the first few his eyes came to rest on one containing a rather cryptically titled document attachment. Opening it, he took a sip of his tea as he waited for it to load. Eventually a large spreadsheet appeared; lists of products and their pricing along with order numbers and encrypted locations for pick up and transfer points filled the screen. Levi only needed to take a quick glance at the names of the products before he realised exactly what he was looking at. This was the final part of the well-oiled machine that was Recon and arguably the bit that Levi was most qualified to run.

Recon and the Ackerman family ran on three different levels. First there was the legitimate company that was Recon, a moneymaking powerhouse in its own right. However, it had had far humbler origins, the original small company being started as a front to cover for the gang formed under the Ackerman name. As the gang had grown in size and power, so had the company. And then the dealings of the family had extended once more. Many years before Levi had even been born there had been growing strife within the country, and at the time the restrictions on armed citizens had been heavily enforced. The Ackermans had then begun to run weapons throughout the major cities. This had built up and up until the point where Levi sat as the head of both the company and family. Now, the under-the-table arms dealings of the company stretched out across several countries. The lists on the laptop screen in front of Levi was but a small portion of these dealings, and yet Levi sorted through it quickly and with an almost practised ease. And yet he had never done it before, solely relying on the instincts and knowledge that one could only gain through multiple years of seeing the destruction weapons could wreak. Levi wondered with a bitter tinge whether the army had ever considered that someone might use the things taught by them to then go and sell on the very same weapons that they had seen destroy the lives of so many. He doubted it.

Getting absorbed into his work, the hours began to slip by, Eren occasionally coming to his table to refill his tea, but barely a word passed between them. Levi didn’t even think on the way that his day would have been so emotionally jarring to most people; the hectic morning of stress, exhaustion and misery somehow morphing into a tranquil long afternoon. Eventually, he decided it was time to head home again, and so, packing up his things, he paid his bill and wished Eren a good evening, before making his way back to his own apartment. And yet, for some reason, when he stepped from the elevator and into his lounge, the apartment seemed colder than usual.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got another chapter out! Not sure if I like this one all that much to be completely honest but eh. Hopefully going to be able to write out chpter 8 soon, but to be honest, I didn't really consider just how much work I was going to be getting this year. As always, thank you so so much to everyone who had bookmarked and/or left kudos on this fic. You guys really make my day. And also just one quick thank you to one of my lovely friends who keeps getting on my back about how infrequent my updates are. Honestly without her they'd probably only turn up once every year! Also I told her this was gonna be a shortish chapter, but turns out I was wrong, and now it's one of the longest?! Hope you guys are still enjoying this  
> U x


	8. Chapter 8

As Levi strode in to his company the next morning he drew all eyes to him. Firstly, instead of stepping out of a chauffeured car with a coffee in hand, he had parked directly outside the building in a sleek black sports car, getting out he looked as though he owned the world, with his cold demeanour and the sunglasses resting on his face, shielding his eyes from the harsh glare of the morning light reflecting off the glass building. His increase in working out had increased his muscle tone to a level where it was obvious through his sharp cut suit, the click of his shoes on the floor only increased the dangerous aura radiating off him. The elevator doors closed, cutting him from view of those in the lobby, but it remained still for a moment after he had gone before people began moving once more.

Inside the elevator Levi readjusted the leather laptop bag that was slung casually over one shoulder. His entire entrance had been a calculated decision. While he knew that the events of a family meeting would never be repeated to anyone outside of the room, it had brought things to the front of his mind that he’d been ignoring. Aware as he was that his lack of sleep and all related bad habits were taking a physical toll on him, he knew it didn’t look good that he was appearing so weak after such a short time at the helm. He knew, even if he personally didn’t care for the opinions of others, that if he portrayed himself as a weak ruler it would have a negative effect on other companies’ perceptions of Recon and the family. And so, even though his skin was losing its already meagre colour and his mind seemed to be fraying more and more with each dawn, he resolved himself to at least act on the outside as though nothing was wrong. With this in mind, he drew himself up straight as the doors slid open. The instant he stepped onto the floor a figure in Nanaba’s office drew his attention, and he increased his pace as a spark of irritation flared within him.

Pushing open the glass door he fixed Hanji with a sharp glare as they swung their legs against the side of the desk they were seated on.  
“What are you doing here Levi?” they asked sharply, breaking off conversation with his assistant as they noticed him, “I told you not to come in today, and as your doctor you should really listen to my suggestions.” He held up a hand to silence them, and for once they payed attention.  
“Hanji, get your filthy ass off that desk and out of my office, I have work to do.”

“Oh come on Lee, you know you need another day, so don’t deny it. And also, technically it’s not yours it’s Nanaba’s.”  
“No Hanji!” he exclaimed, “I’ve got too much work to skip another day, and if you want to get ‘technical’ everything in this building is mine.” He said, with a snarky edge to his words.

“Please Lee, just this one little thing?” They looked at him pleadingly, and he relented ever so slightly.

“Fine. I’ll go home, but there’s no point anyway as I’m taking all my work with me anyway.” He turned to Nanaba, holding out his hand. She reached for a drawer in her desk and pulled a stack of buff coloured files. Hanji tried and failed to stop her handing them to Levi, and just pouted when the blonde sent them an apologetic look.

“Thank you Nanaba,” he said, pausing as he turned to leave he pulled a small USB stick from his laptop bag and passed it to his assistant, “That’s the updated sales sheets and figures, I’m sure you know what to do with them.” He said, and she nodded as she took the stick, an impressed look hovering on her face. In the corner Hanji looked calculating. As he turned away, gathering the files up in his arms, they called out to him once more.

“Remember what I said about your caffeine intake Levi, and I’m cutting off your supply of 48s as well. Mikey was right, I should have assessed you before I started giving you so many, honestly in your state they’d probably kill you. Take care of yourself short stack.” He didn’t bother to reply, heading back into the elevator he descended back down to the ground floor. Sweeping through the constant flow of people on the bottom floor, he made his way to his car and sped away.

* * *

Upon driving away from Recon, Levi didn’t even consider for a second heading back to his flat, instead driving to the small café. He didn’t understand what it was about the place that kept drawing him in, but for some reason he kept gravitating towards it whenever he could. Pulling his car into the first space he found, he grabbed his laptop bag and the stack of files Nanaba had given him and headed into the shop.

He held back the slight smile that was tugging at the corner of his lips as he noticed the mop of brown hair that he could just see behind the man at the front of the queue. He walked over to one of the corner booths, placing his stuff gently on the table, and sitting down as he waited for the few people waiting at the tills to leave. As he approached, he caught Eren’s eye, causing that stunning grin to brighten up his face.

“Back again so soon Levi?” he asked, with a joking lilt, “Still skiving off work are we?” Levi rolled his eyes lightly as Eren chuckled slightly.

“I told you yesterday kid, I’m not skiving, my doctor practically kicked me back out the door this morning.” Eren laughed loudly at the disgruntled look on Levi’s face, and Levi found himself oddly short of breath for a second, but he brushed the odd sensation off as surprise at Eren’s sudden laughter. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he filed away the sound of Eren’s laugh, as he subconsciously found it a very pleasing sound.

“Coffee or tea today then?” he asked after taking a moment to gather himself.  
“Just tea, I believe I’m on a slight coffee ban for now.” Eren nodded, turning to make the drink. He quickly passed it to Levi, who thanked him before returning to the booth where he’d set his belongings down. Swiftly he got to work on the contents of the folders Nanaba had given him, sipping the tea as he went.

Close to an hour later he had completed the work in two of the folders and was well on his way to finishing the third, the travel cup of tea had been drained for a little while. It was a nice touch, he thought, that Eren had always instantly made his drinks in the take-away cups since his reaction at their first encounter. Noticing said young man walking over he slipped some of the more sensitive documents away and watched as he approached.

“Do you want a fresh cup of tea Levi?” he asked when he stopped next to him. The mismatched eyes flitted across to the open folder and various sheets before moving back to Levi. “That would be nice, thank you,” came the reply.  
“As you seem rather busy, I’ll bring it over to you rather than you having to get up.” Levi nodded his thanks, turning back to the open laptop in front of him. Eren didn’t understand anything he glimpsed on the screen but decided not to be nosy and headed back to his workspace.

...

An hour later Eren’s break had arrived and grabbing himself an iced coffee and another cup of tea he went back over to Levi’s table. Smiling as he recognised the song playing softly over the speakers.  
“A cup of tea for the Jack of Hearts,” he smirked as he placed the travel cup down next to Levi’s work. Dropping down into the opposite booth, Eren took a loud sip of his own drink, closing his eyes contentedly as the caramel-coffee flavour slid down his throat. Levi raised a delicate eyebrow at him, grey eyes silently asking as he drew the cup of tea closer to himself. “What?” he finally voiced as Eren continued to sit in silence.

A grin split his face as he jerked his head in the direction of the counter. “Well, you certainly drew the eyes of everyone when you walked in.” It finally clicked in Levi’s mind that Eren was referencing the song playing and he rolled his eyes exasperatedly.  
“If I’m the Jack, then does that make you Lily or Rosemary?” he drawled. If it was possible Eren’s grin grew even more.  
“And who says I’m not Big Jim?” he asked haughtily. Laughing slightly as Levi rolled his eyes again.  
“Well for one, you aren’t dead yet, and your hair is far too wild most of the time to fit the line ‘every hair in place’.”  
“Never would’ve pegged you as a Dylan fan,” Eren said, surprise colouring his tone, “But you must be to know lyrics that well.”  
“What can I say, I’m just full of surprises.” was the completely deadpan reply, “Now to what do I owe the pleasure of your continued company?”

Eren sighed happily leaning back in his seat, “I’m on my break.” came the happy response, “And maybe you should join me in that, because honestly you’ve been working non-stop since you arrived and nobody should be subjected to that!” He exclaimed, throwing his arms out wildly, almost upsetting his drink. Levi swiftly snatched up the paperwork near the offending beverage, glaring at the boy but Eren could see there was no real heat behind it.

“I supposed I could afford to take a five-minute break,” Levi conceded shuffling carefully through the papers in his hands. He sorted them into three neat piles on the table next to him with Eren all the while peering at the sheets curiously.  
“What even is all this stuff anyway?” he asked.  
“This is what most people call work, and I call a pain in the ass.” Levi said snarkily.  
“I’m pretty sure most people call it that, I certainly do, and I have to pick up more hours now,” he replied, sighing. Levi gave him a questioning look as he sipped his tea. “Oh just for the usual reasons, rent going up and all that. But meh, happens to everyone eh?” Levi nodded absently as he glanced down at the papers in front of him. Noticing an error on the top sheet of one of the piles of paper he’d rescued from the threat of Eren’s clumsiness, he picked up a biro and started scribbling in annotations.

“So…” Eren started looking slightly awkward, “Are we gonna talk about the whole ‘Family Business’ thing, or are we just ignoring that it ever happened?” he asked, Levi didn’t look up from the words he was writing, “Hmm?” came his reply, his brow crinkling slightly as he frowned.

“Levi?” Eren asked slightly sharply, making him finally look up. “Well?” he questioned. Levi’s brow furrowed in slight confusion.  
“Sorry, what did you say?” he asked, sounding absolutely unconcerned.  
“Oh, it doesn’t matter” he sighed, shaking his head slightly as Levi turned back to his work. His eyes flickered down to the paper Levi was working on; catching on the Ackerman name printed near the top, and over key words and phrases that showed him it was linked to the very topic he had just tried to breach. Even upside down the word ‘Shiganshina’ jumped out at him and a frown drifted across his face. “I think my break is about over anyway.” He said as he stood. Levi just nodded, not even glancing up until Eren had turned and walked away.

It registered in his mind as odd that for the next two hours he stayed working there the tall brunet didn’t bother him once. But when Levi paid at the end and noticed the messy scrawl at the bottom of his receipt he smiled as he pulled away from the curb and joined the other cars on the road.

_I’d like to think I’m more of a Lily._

* * *

It was the Wednesday night, and Levi was sat at the bar/counter in the 104th nursing a coffee. Eren was making benign conversation with Levi occasionally interjecting. He couldn’t help but feel that Eren was being odd towards him and took a guess that it was linked to their previous encounter. Recalling the way Eren had left so abruptly and not returned after saying something Levi hadn’t caught, he guessed this to be the probable cause. He tuned back into what Eren was saying.

“- and like I don’t know why I didn’t consider that mango season was a thing but -”  
“Hey Eren,” he cut him off midsentence.  
“Huh? Yeah Levi?” he said, meeting his eyes looking oddly startled at being stopped mid-ramble.  
“What did you want to talk about last time?” he asked before he had time to question himself. Eren let out a small oh and looked nervous all of a sudden. Fingers fidgeting with the cleaning cloth they held he looked down at the floor.  
“Well, I just wanted to talk about the fact that we’ve been ignoring the me-”

He was cut off by the door slamming open, and Levi huffed quietly at the interruption. He heard an excited cry from the doorway, and Eren’s familiar greeting, but didn’t look up. The next thing he knew a pair of arms were slung round his shoulders and a great weight leant on his back.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” he swore loudly.

“Now Lee, there’s no need for that kind of language! Fancy meeting you here!” and Levi sighed again at the sound of Hanji’s excitable tone. They plonked down onto the bar stool next to him, and he resolutely didn’t turn towards them. “Honestly Lee stop glaring at that cup like it’s concealing all the great hidden mysteries of the universe! And I thought I told you not to drink coffee anyway?” They tried to drag the cup away but he slapped their hand and pulled it back, taking a sip and continuing to ignore them.

“Hiya Eren!” So instead they turned their attention to Eren, Levi was surprised to hear the response, “How are you doc?” and cut Hanji off to ask “How the hell do you know Hanji?”

“Oh they’re one of my night-time regulars, along with you and Franz, I’m surprised you haven’t run into each other before,” was the casual reply.  
“Who the fuck is Franz?” he asked, confused. Eren nodded to somewhere behind him. He whipped round to see the usual kid draining a large coffee and typing manically away at a laptop. “Oh, him” was all he could think to say, before adding “He always sort of reminds me of you Han, the way he types like a lunatic…” Hanji laughed and Eren nodded sagely.

“Yeah a most of the customers in here at these times give off that kind of energy, except you Levi,”

“Oh yeah and what kind of ‘ _energy’_ do I give off?” He questioned, the airquotes around energy audible in his scathing tone.

“Oh you know, the usual, exhausted, sarcastic and world weary.” Hanji let out a barking laugh and Levi levelled them a glare.

“Well I see enough of this trainwreck at work,” he said, gesturing at Hanji, “So I think I’ll be heading off now. Hanji,” He called as he started walking away, “A quick word please.”

Smiling at Eren they hopped off their stool and bounded over to him. He paused a moment, debating whether or not he should ask them this favour, but brushed the thought aside after another second. “I want you to look into him for me. That is if you haven’t already.” He said quietly finally.  
“How could you possibly think I’d dig up dirt on my favourite barista?!” They asked dramatically, slapping a hand over their heart, “I’m wounded Lee! But since you’ve given my an excuse, I will”  
“As if you normally require an excuse.” Rolling his eyes at their dramatics.  
“But for you Lee, I’ll break all of my moral codes.” He nodded and headed out of the door, missing entirely the way their face dropped into a gleeful grin. Bouncing back to the counter, they rubbed their hands together and giggled slightly, pleased with this new turn of events.

* * *

In a darkened room Hanji sat, surrounded by screens. A half-typed report was on the screen directly in front of her. Another screen held hundreds of lines of code, while several others displayed archived newspaper articles. Scattered on the desk and floor were more files containing more documents similar to those on the screens. But they were only focused on one, a fairly blank page with a login box displayed, at the top of the page was a police badge. Their eyes were flicking between this and one of the screens of code.

“Gotcha!” they exclaimed quietly, typing a string of digits into the login box which promptly disappeared replaced with a large document. Hanji’s eyes flicked backwards and forwards over the words, scrolling through quickly. The screen reflected on their glasses as a blur of blue light, and they grinned at their discovery. Had anyone else been in the room with them, they would have been highly unsettled by the fiendishly hungry look that settled on Hanji’s features.

An hour later, in the corner of the room a decrepit printer whirred noisily to life.

…

Levi sat down at his desk in the bright morning light. A pile of folders was placed in the centre by Nanaba who was already leaving. The top folder had a bright yellow post-it note stuck to the top, scrawled on it in barely legible writing it said:

 

> _Shortstack,  
>  Here’s what you wanted, all the dirt I could possibly find.  
>  I even had to hack into some sealed files for this so you owe me one._

With a smiley face wearing glasses scribbled under it as a signature.

He flipped it open quickly, absorbing the information rapidly. Ten minutes later his eyes widened comically as he reached the information Hanji had clearly been referring to in the note. He picked out a copy of a photo, dated thirteen years earlier. Evidently a crime scene from the yellow tape going off the edge of the photo. The bodies of three fully grown men were strewn on the floor. And copious dark stains on the wooden floor, evidence of stab wounds in the bodies.

“Jesus Christ,” he muttered, “’killed by a penknife in the back…’ Perhaps you’re more of a Rosemary than I thought….”

* * *

 When Levi opened his eyes the room was black, this didn't surprise him as he was used to waking up in the middle of the night now, but something felt wrong. The first thing he noticed was that it wasn't in fact completely pitch black. There was a slight glow of dim light forming the outline of a door. Then he noticed how close the walls were, the room was tiny. His bed was gone and a chill was biting at his skin through the rags he had on. Crouching against the wall, he stared at the door, his eyes were becoming more accustomed to the gloom and he could see that there was no handle on this side of the door. It was a cupboard, the thought hit him.

And then the screaming started. He knew what this was suddenly. Subconsciously he knew it to be a dream; his mother had died twenty seven years earlier. But here he was, stuck in his five year old body. He could hear himself screaming in his mind, but his body wouldn't move. Forcing himself to move forward was the most agonizing thing he'd ever done. But he managed to launch himself through the door.

Falling. Darkness. He was in his adult body again he realized. A stabbing pain in his ankle caused his eyes to snap open again, not even having realised they were closed. He was falling from a tree. Guns slipped from immobile hands and he managed to twist to look at his ankle. Blood poured profusely from the wound and it was staining his surroundings scarlet. Other bodies were falling around him.

The first he recognized was his mother. Then it was the man he'd killed when Kenny taught him how to wield a knife for the first time. And the man he'd knocked from the bridge when fleeing from the cops. Isabelle. Farlan. More and more of the ghosts of his past falling through the red air with him. Twisting to look down he couldn't see the ground. He continued to fall. 

A gunshot sounded and pain lanced through his head. Sticky red liquid flooded his vision. Another gunshot and this time a piercing pain in his chest. By now he was coated in the warm substance. It fell as rain from the ruby sky. His squad joined the falling bodies. He screamed, desperately trying to wake up.

Darkness enveloped him once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, what's this? A wild update!?  
> Yeah, sorry this is so late, like 7 months for a chapter? What?? Honestly, all thanks go to Laura for nagging me about this chapter, I honestly had 1k of it written all this time, but only just finished it yesterday/today. But yeah hope you enjoyed this chapter, I honestly can't promise when the next chapter will exist. Oh and the song references in this chapter are to 'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts' by Bob Dylan, I've just always felt that my versions of Levi and Eren fitted with the characters in the song.   
> But anyway please read, review, kudos and all that stuff, and thanks to everyone whos left kudos   
> U x


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